Appeals court denies Kalshi’s bid to stave off ban in Nevada

US gaming lawyer Daniel Wallach says a Nevada state court-issued restraining order against Kalshi appears imminent, preventing it from offering sports-related contracts.

A federal appeals court has cleared Nevada state authorities to enforce a temporary restraining order on Kalshi to block its sports event contracts.

The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court on Thursday denied Kalshi’s emergency request to stay a lower court proceeding, meaning the case will be sent back to federal court and will allow Nevada’s regulators to take action.

Gaming lawyer Daniel Wallach said a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Kalshi now appears imminent, and added that it wouldn’t be able to operate in Nevada for at least 14 days until a preliminary injunction hearing is held:

The Nevada Gaming Control Board sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist in March over its offering of sports event contracts, arguing they are unlicensed sports betting under Nevada law.

Kalshi has argued in court that its event contracts are under the sole federal jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and any block on its event contracts would cause it “imminent harm.” 

Prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket have recently surged with weekly trading volumes now consistently exceeding $2 billion, according to Dune Analytics, which has also attracted increased scrutiny from lawmakers with concerns over insider trading and market manipulation.

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State regulators in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and other states have also sought to take action over sports event contracts, with Kalshi and rival prediction market platforms Crypto.com, Polymarket and Coinbase in legal battles with multiple states.

In a motion on March 13, Kalshi argued that letting Nevada proceed with its temporary restraining order while federal litigation is still pending creates a serious risk of conflicting rulings.

Kalshi said the courts could arrive at “exactly the opposite conclusion” as to whether federal commodities law preempts state gambling laws, adding that it could “create jurisdictional chaos.”

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Source: CoinTelegraph