Ohio casino regulator issues 10 cease-and-desist letters to prediction market operators
Ohio's casino regulator, the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC), issued cease-and-desist letters to 10 prediction market platforms and brokers over sports event contracts. Kalshi, Robinhood, and Crypto.com were among the first to receive letters in March. Kalshi responded by filing a legal challenge. The action follows a Sixth Circuit ruling that Kalshi's sports contracts are subject to Ohio and Tennessee gambling laws.
The Ohio regulator's 10-notice sweep forces each named operator to choose immediate retreat or expensive state-court defense by the October 16 compliance deadline. Robinhood and Coinbase already folded in Michigan under identical pressure, validating the gambling-framing theory that strips CFTC-registered platforms of federal preemption. Each exit supplies precedent the next state attorney general copies, multiplying defense costs across the industry.
Kalshi's Sixth Circuit loss in Ohio and Tennessee supplies the legal template. Smaller platforms without Robinhood's or Coinbase's legal budgets will retreat first. The CFTC's swap-classification rule remains in White House review, slower than state courtroom clocks. State enforcement is setting compliance bars in real time while federal rules lag.
Joins recent state enforcement that has already driven Gemini, Prophet X, and WeBull from Connecticut and pushed Robinhood and Coinbase to retreat in Michigan, deepening the geographic fracturing of what operators marketed as a national market.