Missouri AG orders Polymarket, Kalshi, and four other platforms to halt sports event contracts
Missouri Attorney General Hanaway issued cease-and-desist letters on September 18 ordering six prediction market platforms to stop offering sports event contracts to state residents. The targeted platforms are Kalshi, Polymarket, Crypto.com, Novig, Underdog, and Robinhood. Hanaway argues the contracts constitute unlicensed sports wagering under Missouri law, violating the voter-backed gaming regulatory framework established by 2024's Amendment 2. She expects the enforcement campaign to end in court.
Hanaway's order fragments the national market six platforms built on CFTC registration. Robinhood already retreated in Michigan and now faces Missouri; Kalshi and Polymarket must add a fifth front to their state-by-state defense. Each new state filing compounds legal spend faster than any single case resolves, and the first outright loss becomes precedent every other state copies.
Traders hold positions whose legality shifts with state borders. The Supreme Court now holds petitions from New Jersey, Crypto.com, and Robinhood pressing preemption, but delay risks more bans before any federal answer arrives. Platforms must choose between costly geofences and a high-stakes cert gamble.
Missouri joins Connecticut, Nevada, and Baltimore in targeting CFTC-registered venues with sports-event-contract enforcement, widening the geofence pattern that Kalshi already fights in parallel state litigation while New Jersey and platform petitions press the Supreme Court for preemption clarity.