The Ohio Casino Control Commission sent 10 cease-and-desist letters last week to prediction markets it said are illegally offering, facilitating or participating in sports event contracts in the state.
The OCCC letters demand that each recipient stop providing sports event contracts in Ohio and confirm compliance in writing by Oct. 16. The commission said the products meet Ohio’s definition of sports gaming and therefore require a state license.
A release from the OCCC notes the letters are a result of last month’s Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that sided with Ohio against Kalshi and rejected the company’s argument that sports event contracts fall under the federal jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The action builds on Ohio’s prediction market enforcement campaign beyond Kalshi, which received the state’s first sports contract cease-and-desist notice in March 2025 and is the plaintiff in that case.
Kalshi is not among the 10 new recipients because it remains in that separate litigation and enforcement proceedings with the commission. The 10 prediction markets are:
- Coinbase
- Gemini Titan
- Moomoo Financial
- Novig Betting
- Plus500US Financial Services
- Polymarket
- Prophet X
- Robinhood
- Underdog
- Webull Financial
“Because these wagers lack the protections Ohio law requires, particularly for young and vulnerable people, the Commission must take action to fulfill its statutory responsibilities, protect consumers, and maintain fairness and integrity in sports gaming across Ohio,” OCCC Interim Executive Director Andromeda Morrison said in a release.
“The Sixth Circuit’s ruling makes clear that sports event contracts are subject to Ohio’s gambling laws. The Commission expects these entities to cease their illegal gambling activity in Ohio immediately.”
Sixth Circuit cleared path for action
The OCCC issued the new prediction markets notices after the Sixth Circuit sided with Ohio and Tennessee in their disputes with Kalshi in a ruling last month.
The three-judge panel found unanimously that Kalshi’s sports event contracts are not swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act and, even if they were, held that federal commodities law does not preempt Ohio’s or Tennessee’s sports betting laws.
The decision affirmed the Southern District of Ohio’s denial of Kalshi’s preliminary injunction request. It vacated a Middle District of Tennessee injunction that prevented Tennessee officials from enforcing their sports wagering law.
The commission said its new action is based directly on that finding.
Ohio regulators consistently argue that the products function as sports bets as customers risk money on athletic outcomes and receive a payout if their selected outcome occurs. The state says that makes the products subject to the licensing, tax, age-verification, consumer-protection and integrity requirements that apply to legal sportsbooks.
Kalshi fight remains active
Ohio’s original fight with Kalshi remains unresolved despite the Sixth Circuit outcome.
The OCCC first sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist notice in March 2025, accusing the exchange of offering unlicensed sports gaming and making sports contracts available to customers under Ohio’s legal sports betting age of 21. The commission also warned licensed sportsbooks that ties to companies it considered illegal operators could raise licensing and integrity concerns.
Kalshi sued Ohio officials, arguing that the Commodity Exchange Act gives the CFTC exclusive authority over contracts traded on a federally registered designated contract market. The company characterized its products as federally regulated event contracts, not sports wagers subject to state control.
The OCCC separately proposed a $5m fine against Kalshi in April over the company’s alleged unlicensed sports gaming activity. Kalshi challenged the matter in state court, and that dispute remains pending.
Governor adds to chorus against prediction markets
Gov. Mike DeWine has since made clear that Ohio intends to act against prediction markets on the appellate decision.
“These so-called prediction markets—which are really gambling, nothing more than that—they’re just trying to get around the law, don’t want to play by the same rules everybody else does, and they don’t want to be regulated by the state,” DeWine said last week, per the Statehouse News Bureau. “And we think that’s wrong.”
DeWine, who said he regrets signing Ohio’s sports betting law, argued that prediction markets should face the same standards as licensed sportsbooks, including the state’s 20% tax and age limit.
Supreme Court pressure grows
Ohio’s action arrives as the national legal map grows more fractured, but increasingly unfavorable for Kalshi’s federal preemption argument.
- The Sixth Circuit joined the Ninth Circuit, which ruled in August that Kalshi’s sports contracts are likely not swaps and allowed Nevada to enforce its gaming laws. The Ninth Circuit later reached a related result in litigation brought by California tribes, holding that the contracts likely constitute class III gaming when offered to users on tribal lands.
- The Third Circuit reached the opposite conclusion in April, finding that Kalshi was likely to succeed in arguing that its sports contracts are swaps and that the Commodity Exchange Act preempts New Jersey’s gambling laws.
- New Jersey has asked the US Supreme Court to resolve that circuit split. Crypto.com and Robinhood have also urged the Court to take up the larger question of whether federal commodities law prevents states from regulating sports event contracts.
- The Fourth Circuit has yet to rule in Kalshi’s Maryland appeal.
That leaves the Supreme Court as the most likely venue for a final national answer for prediction markets jurisdiction. Ohio, however, is not waiting for that final verdict.
