Ohio sends cease-and-desist notices to 10 platforms including Robinhood and Polymarket over sports event
Ohio sent cease-and-desist notices to 10 platforms including Coinbase, Gemini, Robinhood, and Polymarket on October 5, 2026. The notices demand a halt to offering or facilitating sports event contracts in the state. The action follows a late-September Sixth Circuit ruling that Kalshi's sports contracts are subject to Ohio gambling laws, not shielded by CFTC designation. The regulator alleges the platforms solicited orders without proper state authorization.
The notices turn a federal appeals win into immediate operational pressure. Kalshi, Robinhood, and Crypto.com must now suspend Ohio sports trading or face state enforcement, even as they hold CFTC registration. The geofence or fight choice arrives with no waiting period. Each platform already faces parallel suits in Tennessee and other states; Ohio's two-step of court victory plus administrative action offers other attorneys general a rapid template.
Traders hold positions whose legality shifts with state borders, not federal rules. The Supreme Court petitions from New Jersey and others remain the only path to uniform standards, but cert grants are rare and months away. The Sixth Circuit's preemption ruling already rejected the swaps-classification defense CFTC rules might offer, sharpening the litigation disadvantage for every registered platform.
Ohio adds state-level cease-and-desist enforcement to its Sixth Circuit victory against Kalshi's sports contracts, making it the first jurisdiction to win in federal appeals court and then immediately deploy state administrative power against platforms.