New York AG Seeks $36B From Kalshi Over ‘Illegal Gambling’

New York State is seeking at least $36 billion from Kalshi, asking a state court to shut its prediction market down and strip it of three times whatever it has earned. Attorney General Letitia James filed the petition on Friday alongside a motion for a temporary restraining order, treating the platform as an unlicensed gambling business across eight counts. Filings put the damages figure at a minimum, pending a full accounting.

The counts run from the New York Constitution’s gambling ban to bookmaking, possession of gambling records, unlicensed mobile sports wagering and the federal Wire Act. The state also wants $100,000 for every offer of sports wagering, restitution and disgorgement.

“Kalshi has chosen to ignore New York’s gaming laws, which exist to protect consumers, prevent problematic gambling, deliver funding for critical public services, and ensure that every company plays by the same rules,” said New York Governor Kathy Hochul in a statement, adding that the state was taking action to stop its “illegal behaviour” and bring the firm into compliance.

Investigators placed test bets, including four contracts on Connecticut to beat Michigan in April for $1.14 including fees. The petition says Kalshi lets 18-year-olds open accounts where New York sets the floor at 21, and offers markets on games involving New York college teams, which even licensed operators are barred from touching.

A federal-state collision

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission had moved first. It sued New York in April to establish that federal law gives it sole authority over event contracts, and on Thursday asked the court in that case for a restraining order barring the state from bringing criminal or civil enforcement against Kalshi or any other CFTC-registered platform. New York filed the next day regardless.

Kalshi has mostly been losing. It sued the New York State Gaming Commission in the Southern District last October, was denied a preliminary injunction on July 7 and refused protection pending appeal on July 27. A Michigan judge restrained it in June, and King County Superior Court granted Washington a preliminary injunction on July 20. Its two real wins are the Third Circuit, which upheld an injunction against New Jersey in April, and Minnesota, where a federal judge blocked the state’s ban on July 27.

The Minnesota ruling turned on whether event contracts count as swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act. Judge Katherine Menendez found many do, and singled out sports and pop-culture markets as the doubtful cases. New York’s petition is aimed almost entirely at sports.

Washington versus the states

New York is the latest front in a campaign the Trump administration has run for months. The CFTC has sued Illinois, Arizona and Connecticut over their attempts to police event contracts, added Wisconsin, and moved against Minnesota within hours of its ban becoming law. The president has backed the agency directly, calling state officials who oppose prediction markets “SCUM.”

Kalshi’s own figures, quoted back at it in the petition, put its valuation at $22 billion and annualized trading volume at $178 billion. James sued Coinbase and Gemini in April on a similar theory.