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Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes has filed criminal charges against prediction market platform Kalshi for allegedly operating an illegal gambling business in the state without a license and for election wagering.<\/p>\n
The 20-count complaint<\/a>, filed in Maricopa County court on Tuesday, accuses the company of engaging in unlicensed gambling activities, claiming that the site \u201caccepted bets from Arizona residents on a wide range of events,\u201d including state elections, a practice that is illegal in Arizona<\/a>. The complaint charged Kalshi with four counts of election wagering for accepting bets from Arizona residents on the 2028 presidential race, the 2026 Arizona gubernatorial race, the 2026 Arizona Republican gubernatorial primary, and the 2026 Arizona secretary of state race.<\/p>\n This is the first time a state has pursued such charges against the company, according to the AZ Mirror<\/a>, and marks a significant escalation in the battle between states and the prediction market industry.<\/p>\n \u201cKalshi may brand itself as a \u2018prediction market,\u2019 but what it\u2019s actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law,\u201d Attorney General Mayes said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cNo company gets to decide for itself which laws to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that the charges are technically misdemeanors. They follow a small surge of cease-and-desist letters<\/a>, lawsuits<\/a>, and other official actions from states over Kalshi\u2019s activities, in which numerous officials have complained that<\/a> the company is skirting state gambling laws.<\/p>\n Conversely, prediction sites like Kalshi have argued that they are not in violation of state law because they are subject to federal regulation via the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.<\/p>\n Kalshi may be getting attacked left, right, and center, but the company has also taken its own, often preemptive, legal action.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> Kalshi sued Arizona\u2019s Department of Gaming<\/a> in federal court on March 12. The company\u2019s lawsuit<\/a> argued that Arizona\u2019s regulatory attempts were intruding \u201cinto the federal government\u2019s exclusive authority to regulate derivatives trading on exchanges.\u201d Kalshi also recently sued\u00a0Iowa<\/a> and Utah<\/a> on similar grounds.<\/p>\n Mayes\u2019 office argues the company is merely trying to avoid accountability. <\/p>\n \u201cKalshi is making a habit of suing states rather than following their laws. In the last three weeks alone, the company has filed lawsuits against Iowa and Utah, and now Arizona,\u201d Mayes said in a statement. \u201cRather than work within the legal frameworks that states like Arizona have established, Kalshi is running to federal court to try to avoid accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n Elisabeth Diana, Kalshi\u2019s head of communications, called the Arizona criminal charges \u201cseriously flawed\u201d and a matter of \u201cgamesmanship\u201d related to the company\u2019s own litigation against the state.<\/p>\n \u201cFour days after Kalshi filed suit in federal court, these charges were filed to circumvent federal court and short-circuit the normal judicial process,\u201d Diana said. \u201cThey attempt to prevent federal courts from evaluating the case based on the merits \u2014 whether Kalshi is subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction. These charges are meritless, and we look forward to fighting them in court.\u201d<\/p>\n Federal officials have signaled that they\u2019re on the prediction industry\u2019s side, setting up a potential regulatory showdown between states and the federal bureaucracy. Michael Selig, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, recently published an op-ed<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal in which he accused state governments of having \u201cwaged legal attacks on the CFTC\u2019s authority to regulate\u201d such sites. Selig also claimed that his agency would no longer \u201csit idly by while overzealous state governments\u201d undermined the agency\u2019s \u201cexclusive jurisdiction\u201d over the industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n