A Nevada judge has extended a ban that prevents Kalshi from offering event-based contracts to state residents, ruling the products amount to unlicensed gambling under Nevada law.
At a hearing in Carson City, Judge Jason Woodbury said he would grant a preliminary injunction sought by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. The order bars Kalshi from allowing Nevada residents to trade on outcomes tied to sports, elections, entertainment or similar events without obtaining a gaming license. The injunction continues a temporary restraining order first issued on March 20 and will remain in place through April 17 while the court considers whether longer-term restrictions are appropriate.
Kalshi, a New York-based platform, has maintained that its contracts are financial derivatives—specifically swaps—and therefore fall under the exclusive regulatory authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Judge Woodbury rejected that characterization, saying that buying a Kalshi contract linked to a game outcome is functionally indistinguishable from placing a bet with a licensed sportsbook and thus constitutes gaming under Nevada statutes.
The decision is the first time a state has secured a court-enforced ban against Kalshi that is currently in effect. An appeals court recently refused Kalshi’s request to block Nevada’s enforcement action. Separately, Utah legislators passed a bill to classify proposition-style in-game bets as gambling, explicitly aiming to block similar offerings from Kalshi and competing platform Polymarket.
The CFTC has asserted its authority over prediction markets and said it is prepared to defend that jurisdiction in court if challenged by states or other regulators. Speaking at an industry conference, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig described prediction markets as potential “truth machines,” arguing that markets where participants put money behind their views can generate more transparent and reliable signals about future events than conventional opinion polls.