Kalshi founder ready to take regulation fight to Supreme Court as Utah becomes latest state to go on attack: manager of a back-alley gambling den
Utah authorities are seeing to kick Kalshi out of the state, the latest legal battle to hit the prediction market giant as its co-founder Tarek Mansour says efforts to regulate his business could end up in the Supreme Court.Kalshi is “the manager of a back-alley gambling den” in a state where gambling is illegal, Utah’s Attorney General Derek Brown alleged in state court Tuesday, saying the company has shown a “brazen pattern of unlawful conduct.”The suit is demanding that Kalshi – which offers wagers across a slew of real-world events from sports and the Oscars to the weather in France and prices at Costco – cough up millions it made on Utah turf, so the money can go back to residents.Utah is the latest state to target Kalshi and other prediction markets, which claim their event contracts – which allow users to take a “yes” or “no” position – are financial “swaps” sanctioned by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.Kalshi has argued that federal approval overrides state bans. States including New York and Nevada – along with US Native American tribes – have also sued prediction market companies, seeking to prevent them from offering wagers in their jurisdictions. A US appeals court ruled last month that Ohio and Tennessee can regulate Kalshi’s so-called event contracts under gambling laws, dealing the prediction markets a significant setback.“Kalshi is a federally regulated financial exchange, like the stock market.
Our customers trade with each other and set the prices,” a Kalshi spokeswoman told The Post.“As a national derivatives market overseen by the CFTC, Kalshi answers to federal law, and no single state should have a veto over it.This latest state court action does not affect our ongoing federal litigation.”After Kalshi landed an appeals court win in the Jersey case, the state asked for a Supreme Court review.Speaking on the Reuters Econ World podcast on Wednesday, Mansour said he was confident of t...