Sixth Circuit Rules States Can Enforce Gambling Laws Against Kalshi Sports Contracts

The ruling matters less as a gambling question than as a federal-preemption question: the court declined to treat event contracts as swaps, which is the jurisdictional hook Kalshi has relied on to argue that federal commodities law displaces state gambling regimes. That leaves prediction markets exposed to a patchwork of state enforcement rather than a single federal standard, a structural disadvantage relative to derivatives venues. Whether other circuits adopt the same reading of the swap definition, and whether Kalshi's remaining arguments survive further review, is the open question.