Judge Pauses Arizona's Prosecution of Kalshi, Bars Arizona from Regulating Prediction Markets (apnews.com)
(Saturday April 11, 2026 @10:07PM (EditorDavid)
from the wanna-bet dept.)
- Reference: 0181615366
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/04/12/025259/judge-pauses-arizonas-prosecution-of-kalshi-bars-arizona-from-regulating-prediction-markets
- Source link: https://apnews.com/article/arizona-kalshi-criminal-charges-prediction-markets-gambling-bb7cef24be5bd0d444bba670d2e41ceb
Arizona state prosecutors allege Kalshi is [1]running an illegal gambling operation , charging the prediction market with 20 "wagering" misdemeanors. But Friday a federal judge "temporarily barred Arizona from enforcing its gambling laws against predictive market operators," [2]reports the Associated Press , "and put the brakes on a criminal wagering case that the state has filed against Kalshi.
"U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi's ruling means a Monday arraignment hearing for Kalshi has been called off."
> The order was issued in a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration. The judge's order said the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission had sufficiently shown that "event contracts" fall within the Commodity Exchange Act's definition of "swaps," and that it had demonstrated a reasonable chance of success in showing that the act preempts Arizona law... The commission had sued Arizona in response to cease-and-desist letters sent to Kalshi from state gambling regulators and the criminal charges filed against the prediction market operator. The commission argued Arizona is intruding on its exclusive federal power to regulate national swaps markets...
>
> Earlier this month, the federal government [3]filed lawsuits against Connecticut, Arizona and Illinois challenging their efforts to regulate prediction market operators. The Trump administration has so far backed the platforms. President Donald Trump's eldest son is an adviser for both Kalshi and Polymarket and an investor in the latter. Trump's social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.
Federal and state judges in Nevada and Massachusetts have now issued early rulings in favor of states looking to ban Kalshi and its competitor Polymarket from offering sports being in their states, according to the article, "while federal judges in New Jersey and Tennessee have ruled in favor of Kalshi."
And Arizona's attorney general's office said it disagrees with the court's ruling and "will evaluate our next steps."
[1] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/03/17/2154229/arizona-charges-kalshi-with-illegal-gambling-operation
[2] https://apnews.com/article/arizona-kalshi-criminal-charges-prediction-markets-gambling-bb7cef24be5bd0d444bba670d2e41ceb
[3] https://apnews.com/article/prediction-markets-kalshi-polymarket-lawsuits-bf02dafc40758887b03b4e9fc8aac104
"U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi's ruling means a Monday arraignment hearing for Kalshi has been called off."
> The order was issued in a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration. The judge's order said the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission had sufficiently shown that "event contracts" fall within the Commodity Exchange Act's definition of "swaps," and that it had demonstrated a reasonable chance of success in showing that the act preempts Arizona law... The commission had sued Arizona in response to cease-and-desist letters sent to Kalshi from state gambling regulators and the criminal charges filed against the prediction market operator. The commission argued Arizona is intruding on its exclusive federal power to regulate national swaps markets...
>
> Earlier this month, the federal government [3]filed lawsuits against Connecticut, Arizona and Illinois challenging their efforts to regulate prediction market operators. The Trump administration has so far backed the platforms. President Donald Trump's eldest son is an adviser for both Kalshi and Polymarket and an investor in the latter. Trump's social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.
Federal and state judges in Nevada and Massachusetts have now issued early rulings in favor of states looking to ban Kalshi and its competitor Polymarket from offering sports being in their states, according to the article, "while federal judges in New Jersey and Tennessee have ruled in favor of Kalshi."
And Arizona's attorney general's office said it disagrees with the court's ruling and "will evaluate our next steps."
[1] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/03/17/2154229/arizona-charges-kalshi-with-illegal-gambling-operation
[2] https://apnews.com/article/arizona-kalshi-criminal-charges-prediction-markets-gambling-bb7cef24be5bd0d444bba670d2e41ceb
[3] https://apnews.com/article/prediction-markets-kalshi-polymarket-lawsuits-bf02dafc40758887b03b4e9fc8aac104
60 billion out of the economy (Score:3)
by rsilvergun ( 571051 )
Most of that money gone from angry young men who couldn't really afford to lose it. There is a damn good reason we heavily regulate gambling. It's known to be addictive. But sure let's have millions of young men with poor job prospects and in debt up to their ears from gambling. I'm sure that won't cause any problems for the rest of us.
Futures trading is gambling (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem the states are going to have is that futures trading, what the CFTC regulates, is gambling. You're betting on what the price of the commodity will do in the future. The moment the CFTC expanded to allowing intangible commodities, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
Re: (Score:2)
Do loot boxes with surprise mechanics also count as intangible commodities? Asking for a friend.
Anyway, it was quite easy to see where these cases where headed when you factor in this: President Donald Trump's eldest son is an adviser for both Kalshi and Polymarket and an investor in the latter. Trump's social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.
Those aren't the same thing (Score:2)
Like I told the other guy, not the same thing. A loot box is not a known commodity. When I'm doing futures trading I am trading and known commodities and the only question is how much they will be worth in the future.
If I buy a loot box then that is literally random chance or it's supposed to be.
I'm assuming that you've picked up a bunch of nonsense propaganda from the gambling houses. It's also possible that they are so pervasive that they are starting to show up here. Either the way this is nonse
Re: (Score:2)
> A loot box is not a known commodity.
A loot box is a known commodity with unknown content. Also, it was a joke because the concept of loot boxes is seen as gambling in many jurisdictions which is why EA tried to call them surprise mechanics to avoid gambling laws.
The whole thing with wagering on intangible commodities is the same type of evasion but with a lot more money, and with the right people involved laws will be adjusted to make sure it isn't gambling.
It absolutely is not (Score:4, Interesting)
Just because you are making a purchase based on an expectation does not mean you're gambling. At the end of the day when you purchase a future you're still purchasing something of tangible value. You might lose money because you overestimate the value of that thing but the amount of money you can lose is limited somewhat because there is still a tangible asset backing your purchase.
What makes gambling gambling is that you are putting up money with the expectation that given a certain outcome you will get paid more money than you put up if that outcome happens and you will lose all of your money if that outcome does not happen. There's no tangible asset whatsoever you're just making a guess on an outcome.
There is a reason why we have different words to describe gambling and futures trading instead of just using the same words. They are different things.
Of course after decades of right wing lunatics being put on the courts so that they will sign off on whatever the Epstein class wants the rule of law no longer applies.
There will be consequences for you personally. Even if you don't Gamble the tens of billions of dollars lost will drag down the overall economy and help take you with it.
There is a concept called at chesterton's fence. The idea is don't take offense down unless you know why it was put up. You are in the process of taking down a fence without realizing why it was put up
Re: (Score:2)
> You might lose money because you overestimate the value of that thing but the amount of money you can lose is limited somewhat because there is still a tangible asset backing your purchase.
Nope. That's not true for several types of futures strategies, and it is not a good way to classify gambling vs investment.
Re: (Score:2)
This argument led to its logical conclusion calls any exchange of any value gambling, including barter.
You can never be certain about qualities (or even quantity) of something until you have unlimited access to it. In fact, there's many real world examples that happen daily. You can buy a vending machine sandwich only to find out it's one of these depressing scammy ones with a thin slice of ham folded up right in the front facing part of the sandwich with the rest of the bread dry and empty. You can spend a