Kalshi court losses pile up as judges refuse to block state gambling laws

In some cases, Kalshi brought the lawsuit against the state(s). Others, where the state(s) initiated the action, name Kalshi and not Polymarket because only Kalshi is operating (legally) in US. Polymarket doesn't offer as many markets on its US-facing entity as it does on its main international site, and not exactly sure but I believe they have not included many of the markets on their US site that are causing Kalshi issues here.

The main thing getting Kalshi all the attention from the states is their sports gambling markets. Not sure if polymarket offers those to US.

Polymarket didn't serve the US last I checked, unless they've changed recently.

I think it might have something to do with the fact that Kalshi is aggressively running ads targeting young men to get them into sports gambling, and Polymarket isn't. (I've never seen them, but my less-technical brother claims he sees them all the time on tiktok and they're particularly sleazy).

Also, more to the point, Polymarket actually does have at least three active lawsuits against it.

edit: looks like this has something to do with it:

> Kalshi has been a CFTC-regulated exchange since 2020. Polymarket exited the US in 2022 after settling charges with the CFTC, and only came back after buying QCEX, a CFTC-licensed exchange, in late 2025.

Yes it’s strange, both have hired Donald Trump Jr. as advisor. You’d think they’d both be safe.

Stocks are backed by something real (in general). There's a business. That business can't just manufacture new stock out of thin air without going through a regulatory process to do so and the total number of shares is publicly known.

Furthermore the institutions that allow you to trade mostly aren't taking positions on the stock price and in theory there are jail-time consequences if they cheat. In practice that isn't always the case but at least there is some limit to what they can do to screw over their customers.

These contract markets have absolutely none of that. If they decide to take up positions to stuff their own pockets you probably wouldn't even know it and it wouldn't be illegal either. They can make up contracts for anything and everything without limit. If they aren't front-running their own customers then they're idiots because that's free money. And they can just lie about the odds as they like so if bets aren't going the way they want just tip the scales.

Oh and they have absolute control over whether any event counts as success or not and how to handle edge cases. There's no one you can appeal to.

Maybe they operate above-board in all aspects. Maybe they don't. No one really knows.

Even if we concede that, Kalshi and Polymarket need to be better regulated with actual laws associated with it, as opposed to the quasi-wild-west thing we have now. I will acknowledge that a lot of trading isn't significantly different than gambling, when you do things to purposefully manipulate the market or gamble with non-public information, there's at least an SEC that can investigate, sue, and/or arrest. I'm not claiming it's perfect, but at least there's an attempt to make the markets more fair.

It doesn't really seem like Kalshi and Polymarket have nearly the same regulation. There are plenty of cases where people are purposefully betting on the market when they can easily manipulate the results, with little/no consequences.

Are you actually asking, or sea-lioning? I can't imagine anyone comparing these two whom has even a cursory understand of financial markets and gambling. Unless one has interests in gambling companies? Or do you gamble a lot and want to keep it legal? Why frame your question this way? Judge gambling on its merits, for which there clearly isn't any outside of entertainment.

Like, at least try to put effort to the comment to show you thought about it beyond the obvious propaganda of gambling companies. What, specifically, is the same? Why arent the differences important?

The apps know who the whales are. They make up 90% of their revenue. Ban them from taking money from whales, and the problem evaporates back to harmless $20 fun.

How to do this? Demand proof of income or assets and rent above $2000 in bets made in one year. Then audit these companies to ensure they are banning problem gamblers. If they are gambling or losing more than 5% of their net worth/income, that is a whale and they need to be play within their limits or get banned.

This is trivial to do, including at casinos. No one wants to do this because those companies have interests and that means their $100B+ scam industry is gone.

One is betting on downstream outcomes whereas another is betting on specific events.

>If Kalshi is gambling, how does it differ from trading traditional financial instruments that are affected by unknown future events like Federal Reserve interest rate decisions,

Easy. Financial instruments are used to tune the resource allocation in capitalism. Gambling however is used to have fun with an idea of getting free money. As such, one is at odds with the religious beliefs based on not having fun for no good reason.

The differences between "gambling on sports" and "a contract on the end results of a sports game" is the same as the difference between "driving a car" and a sovereign citizen's "traveling in a conveyance". You are playing semantic games for what are the same substance. You are conflating the issue of sports gambling (which is what the law suit is about) with interest rates and saying that it's all gambling/stock market. It's not cute or logical.

Don't be obtuse. Kalshi and Polymarket are 100% gambling. You don't need a PhD to see that.

How do you feel about government regulation of heroin? Do your principles apply equally across all forms of “personal responsibility”?

CFTC, which isn’t as heavy handed as the SEC even under democrats

SEC is down for whatever right now too by the way

No, the Congress does.

The ultimate bet

The Supreme Court has no say over a state choosing to ban gambling.

According to the article, Kalshi paid Trump a $3 million bribe. Do we have any idea what bribes the Republican Supreme Court Justices have taken from Kalshi?

Great, the most corrupt court ever.

Unless Congress now acts