Louisiana court blocks Kalshi and Polymarket
A Louisiana judge has ordered Kalshi, Polymarket and other prediction market operators to cease offering event contracts in the state, as regulatory and legal pressure mounts on the industry across the United States.
Judge Jeffrey Johnson issued the temporary restraining order on November 12 following legal action by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who alleges the operators are facilitating illegal gambling without state licences.
The order names 31 legal entities, including subsidiaries and affiliates associated with major prediction market businesses. A preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for November 30.
“It’s not complicated: if you aren’t a licensed gaming operator, you aren’t legal,” Murrill said.
Kalshi and Polymarket maintain that their event contracts are financial derivatives regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), rather than gambling products subject to state laws.
“The operation of federally-regulated exchanges is the exclusive province of the federal government. Full stop,” Kalshi head of litigation Jovy Dedaj said.
Kalshi had already filed a federal lawsuit challenging Louisiana’s authority to regulate its operations.
The ruling follows enforcement action across more than a dozen US states, including Utah, which filed 14 criminal charges against Kalshi and its co-founders on October 28 following an undercover investigation.
Meanwhile, the CFTC is investigating whether Kalshi properly notified the regulator about proposed event contracts, according to POLITICO.
Kalshi spokesperson Elisabeth Diana described the matter as “a procedural error involving the submission of a handful of contracts, many of which weren’t live.”
In a separate development, Kalshi confirmed that Donald Trump Jr. had stepped down as a paid adviser following increased investment by his firm, 1789 Capital, in rival prediction market operator Polymarket.
