Federal Judge Bars Kalshi Sports Contracts on California Tribal Lands

A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction barring Kalshi from offering sports-event contracts on the lands of two California tribes, the first such injunction secured by tribes against the prediction markets platform anywhere in the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley issued the order on Wednesday. It covers contracts tied to football, basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis and Ultimate Fighting Championship events on the lands of the Blue Lake Rancheria and the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians.

The order sets tight compliance deadlines. The two tribes must provide boundary maps by Nov. 13, and Kalshi must report the status of the steps it has taken to comply within 21 days.

Sports and gaming attorney Daniel Wallach described the ruling as the first preliminary injunction secured by tribes against Kalshi nationwide, calling it "a major development in tribal gaming litigation."

What does the injunction actually cover?

The case turns on whether Kalshi's sports event contracts are regulated financial products or unauthorized gambling. The tribes filed suit in July 2025, alleging that the contracts constitute unauthorized Class III gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) and violate the tribes' gaming ordinances.

Kalshi has countered that its sports event contracts are federally regulated swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The company argues that the CEA's grant of exclusive jurisdiction to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission preempts tribal gaming law — meaning only the federal derivatives regulator, not tribes, can police the products.

The fight has already produced one appellate reversal. Judge Corley initially denied the tribes' motion for a preliminary injunction in November 2025. The tribes appealed, and a Ninth Circuit panel partially reversed that decision in September.

"Reversing the district court's denial of a preliminary injunction in part, the panel held that the tribes were likely to succeed in their claims that Kalshi's sports event contracts on tribal lands violated IGRA and the tribes' gaming ordinances," the panel wrote.

The Ninth Circuit panel also held that the CEA's "exclusive" jurisdiction does not extend to Kalshi's sports event contracts — a holding that undercuts the preemption argument Kalshi has leaned on in disputes across multiple jurisdictions.

The Block has reached out to Kalshi for comment.

How much legal pressure is Kalshi facing?

The California injunction adds to a growing stack of enforcement actions against the platform, and the pace is accelerating across both civil and criminal tracks.

• On Wednesday, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin sued Kalshi for allegedly operating an illegal gambling platform in the state. "It doesn't take a genius to understand that wagering money on whether the Razorbacks win or lose is gambling," Griffin said, adding that the practice is "squarely prohibited" by Arkansas law.
• Last week, Utah filed criminal charges against Kalshi and two company executives, accusing them of illegally promoting online gambling.
• Utah has also sued Kalshi and two Susquehanna trading firms for allegedly operating an illegal gambling business.

The operational stakes are now concrete. Kalshi must geofence two tribal territories in California on a court-ordered timeline, and the Ninth Circuit's reasoning on CEA jurisdiction gives other tribes and states a template for similar claims.

The Nov. 13 boundary-map deadline and the 21-day compliance report mark the first hard dates in what is likely to be a longer fight over whether prediction markets sit inside or outside the nation's gaming laws.