Ohio regulators are joining their peers in Nevada and New Jersey and telling Kalshi, Robinhood, and now Crypto.com to shut down trading of sports-related event contracts in the state.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) announced on Monday that it issued cease-and-desist notices to the three companies.
This, the regulator said, was after determining the sports event contracts offered by the companies met the definition of sports betting under state law and require a sportsbook license.
“Purchasing a contract based on which team a person thinks will win a sporting event is no different than placing a bet through a traditional sportsbook,” OCCC executive director Matthew Schuler said in a press release. “The only difference is that these event contracts do not have the consumer protections required under Ohio law and are accessible to Ohioans under 21 years of age. The Commission must take action to fulfill its statutory responsibilities and ensure the integrity of sports gaming in Ohio.”
And now Kalshi has been hit with a cease-and-desist letter by Ohio regulators in connection with sports event contracts. The Ohio Casino Control Commission sent C&Ds to Robinhood and Crypto dot com as well, per a press release. pic.twitter.com/VuEPPux4aR
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) March 31, 2025
The commission said the notices “demand” the three companies stop “offering, participating in offering, or facilitating those who offer sports event contracts” in the state.
Kalshi, Robinhood, and Crypto have until Monday, April 14 to notify the Ohio sports betting regulator in writing that they have done so.
"The threatened actions by the Ohio CCC seek to undermine not just Kalshi’s contracts, but the authority granted by Congress to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has safely and effectively governed commodities markets for decades," Kalshi CEO and co-founder Tarek Mansour said in a statement on Tuesday.
You say tomato, I say that tomato is sports betting
Monday’s cease-and-desist notices from the commission mean there are now at least three states actively seeking to shut down sports event contract trading within their borders, judging that business to be a little too much like sports betting.
As their name suggests, the contracts that legal sports betting regulators are taking issue with allow users to buy and sell contracts tied to sporting events, including single-game wagering.
For example, on Monday afternoon, a Kalshi user could buy a "yes" contract for Texas to defeat TCU in the NCAA women's basketball tournament. The user would pay 78 cents for that contract, with the potential to win up to another 22 cents if the Longhorns emerge victorious on Monday night.
So-called “prediction markets” offered by Kalshi, Robinhood (which is partnered with Kalshi), and Crypto.com began to gain significant traction before, during, and after last year’s presidential election, as they offered a technically legal route to wager on the contest that state-regulated sportsbooks lacked.
Since then, the prediction market business has continued to grow. However, the introduction of sports-related event contracts late last year triggered pushback from state-level regulators and the legal gambling industry.
Party crashers
Nevada, New Jersey, and Ohio have now officially had enough.
Ohio has also taken the added step of issuing a cease-and-desist letter to Crypto.com, which has yet to be targeted by Nevada or New Jersey, but was technically the first to offer sports-related event contracts for trading.
Kalshi is already suing to block Nevada and New Jersey from shutting down trading of its sports event contracts within those states. Whether the federally regulated exchange will do the same in Ohio remains to be seen. (Robinhood, meanwhile, stopped New Jersey residents from making new trades on college basketball, despite maintaining they do not believe the contracts violate state law.)
Nevertheless, the latest news suggests that legal sports betting watchdogs in states across the U.S. are becoming much more interested in prediction markets, which are regulated by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission and available in all 50 states.
It’s that federal oversight and law that Kalshi says preempts state-level efforts to curtail its operations.
“These contracts are subject to extensive oversight by the CFTC, and critically—they are lawful under federal law,” Kalshi said in New Jersey. “Two months ago, the CFTC allowed Kalshi’s sports-outcome contracts to take effect without review.”
