Ohio sent cease-and-desist letters to Polymarket after Kalshi's Sixth Circuit loss
Polymarket was among a group of companies that received cease-and-desist letters from Ohio regulators in early October 2026. The letters followed the Sixth Circuit ruling that Kalshi sports contracts fall under state gambling laws. Polymarket now argues that event contracts fall under exclusive CFTC jurisdiction and that Ohio's enforcement push violates the Commerce Clause. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine promised enforcement action after an Oct. 16 deadline. The company faces the same preemption collapse that stripped Kalshi's federal shield.
Ohio's action widens the state crackdown beyond Kalshi to every CFTC-registered platform. For Polymarket, the state letter lands days after the Sixth Circuit erased Kalshi's preemption argument, leaving no federal backstop. Each new state that copies Ohio's template fragments national markets into geofenced patches and multiplies legal bills.
The NFL has already urged the Supreme Court to cement state gambling framing. Polymarket is now caught between slow federal rulemaking and fast courtroom losses. A second operator defeat would confirm the preemption shield is gone and force every platform toward expensive geofences or product pullbacks.
Joins a widening state-federal preemption war that already cost Kalshi its shield in the Sixth Circuit and now draws in Missouri and Tennessee, as state attorneys general copy Ohio's template against CFTC-registered platforms.