---
type: source
title: "Kalshi faces 19 federal lawsuits across three categories — the full prediction market litigation landscape"
author: "NPR (Bobby Allyn)"
url: https://www.npr.org/2026/01/30/nx-s1-5691837/lawsets-prediction-market-kalshi
date: 2026-01-30
domain: internet-finance
secondary_domains: []
format: article
status: enrichment
priority: high
triage_tag: entity
tags: [kalshi, prediction-markets, litigation, regulation, gaming, CFTC, state-federal]
processed_by: rio
processed_date: 2026-03-18
enrichments_applied: ["Polymarket vindicated prediction markets over polling in 2024 US election.md", "polymarket-achieved-us-regulatory-legitimacy-through-qcx-acquisition-establishing-prediction-markets-as-cftc-regulated-derivatives.md", "polymarket-kalshi-duopoly-emerging-as-dominant-us-prediction-market-structure-with-complementary-regulatory-models.md"]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

NPR's comprehensive mapping of Kalshi's legal landscape as of January 30, 2026:

**19 Federal Lawsuits in Three Categories:**
1. **8 suits — State/tribal offensive:** State gambling commissions and Indian tribes accusing Kalshi of operating unlicensed sports gambling
2. **6 suits — Kalshi offensive:** Kalshi suing state regulators, contending federal preemption means they lack authority
3. **5 suits — Consumer class action:** Individuals alleging Kalshi is an illegal service worsening gambling addiction (4 seeking class-action status)

**Key Quotes:**
- Neal Katyal (Kalshi attorney): "Mountains of authority confirm...Congress's aim of bringing futures markets under uniform regulations."
- Daniel Wallach (gaming attorney): "They're engaging in gambling, no matter what they're trying to call it."
- Koleman Strumpf (economics professor): "It's going to be something the Supreme Court, and maybe even Congress, will have to weigh in on."

**The Core Legal Issue:**
Under federal law, "gaming" is a prohibited type of futures contract — now being litigated in numerous federal courts. Kalshi's future depends on convincing courts that placing monetary wagers on sports events is not a type of game.

**Court Split Summary:**
- D.C. federal court: ruled election betting doesn't constitute "gaming"
- Maryland: ruled Kalshi wagers constitute games
- Massachusetts: determined Kalshi cannot operate sports prediction markets

**Industry Impact:**
A Kalshi loss could affect competitors Robinhood, Coinbase, FanDuel, and DraftKings, all of which recently announced rival prediction market services. Conversely, a Kalshi victory establishes federal preemption, reshaping sports betting regulation nationally.

**UPDATE (March 2026):** Since this NPR article, Arizona filed criminal charges (March 17) and the CFTC issued its advisory + ANPRM (March 12). Total litigation has likely expanded beyond 19 cases.

## Agent Notes
**Triage:** [ENTITY] — Kalshi litigation landscape entity update. The 19-lawsuit taxonomy (8 state offensive, 6 Kalshi offensive, 5 consumer class action) is the clearest mapping of the full legal battlefield.

**Why this matters:** The three categories of lawsuits create different precedent risks:
- State offensive suits → preemption precedent (most relevant to futarchy)
- Kalshi offensive suits → tests federal court willingness to protect prediction markets
- Consumer class actions → gambling addiction narrative that could generate political pressure regardless of legal outcome

**What surprised me:** Consumer class actions. I hadn't tracked these. If class-action plaintiffs establish that prediction markets "worsen gambling addiction," this creates political headwinds even if Kalshi wins the federal preemption argument. For futarchy: the gambling addiction narrative doesn't apply to governance markets (nobody is addicted to voting on DAO proposals via conditional tokens), but the political guilt-by-association risk is real.

**KB connections:**
- Updates the prediction market regulatory landscape tracked across Sessions 1-2
- The consumer class action dimension is new — wasn't in Session 2's analysis

**Extraction hints:** Extract the three-category taxonomy as entity state. Track total lawsuit count over time. The consumer class action vector is worth a separate claim about political risk vs legal risk for prediction markets.

## Curator Notes
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[Polymarket vindicated prediction markets over polling in 2024 US election]]
WHY ARCHIVED: Most comprehensive mapping of the Kalshi litigation landscape — the three-category taxonomy reveals different risk vectors


## Key Facts
- As of January 30, 2026, Kalshi faces 19 federal lawsuits in three categories
- 8 lawsuits are state gambling commissions and Indian tribes accusing Kalshi of unlicensed sports gambling
- 6 lawsuits are Kalshi suing state regulators claiming federal preemption
- 5 lawsuits are consumer class actions alleging illegal gambling service (4 seeking class-action status)
- D.C. federal court ruled election betting doesn't constitute 'gaming'
- Maryland court ruled Kalshi wagers constitute games
- Massachusetts determined Kalshi cannot operate sports prediction markets
- Neal Katyal represents Kalshi as attorney
- Koleman Strumpf (economics professor) predicts Supreme Court and possibly Congressional intervention
- Arizona filed criminal charges against Kalshi on March 17, 2026
- CFTC issued advisory and ANPRM on March 12, 2026
