Case 3:25-cv-02016-VDO Document 56-1 Filed 01/16/26 Page 10 of 29
(B) based on (1) a live sporting event or a portion or portions of a live sporting event, including future or propositional events during such an event, or (2) the individual performance statistics of an athlete or athletes in a sporting event or a combination of sporting events”); Mohegan Agreement, § 1(nn) (same); see also Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-850(34) (same). These activities fall squarely within IGRA’s scope when they occur on Indian lands. See 25 C.F.R. § 502.4(c) (classifying sports betting as class III gaming). Under IGRA, however, Kalshi may not operate class III gaming activities—including sports betting—on the Connecticut Tribes’ Indian lands unless, among other things, its gaming activities are conducted in conformance with a tribal-state compact. See 25 U.S.C. § 2710(d)(1); 25 C.F.R. § 502.4(c). C. Congress Did Not Repeal IGRA or Prohibit Tribes from Conducting Sports Wagering When It Enacted the CEA’s Definition of a “Swap” in 2010. Kalshi does not assert that its conduct complies with IGRA. In fact, Kalshi has made no attempt to ensure that its sports-wagering activities on Indian lands—in Connecticut, and across the country—comply with IGRA. Instead, Kalshi argues that Congress’s definition of a single term—“swaps”—within a statute whose entire purpose is to address the risk, discovery, and dissemination of commodity prices, 7 U.S.C. § 5(a)–(b), effectively repealed core provisions of IGRA. Under this theory, Congress silently stripped away tribes’ and states’ longstanding authority over sports betting 4 (and potentially other kinds of class III gaming) while allowing for-profit companies like Kalshi to run internet casinos pursuant to their own private regulations.
4 Kalshi also suggests that its sports-event contracts are not gaming because there is no betting against the “house.” Pl. Memo. Supp. Prelim. Inj. at 7, , ECF No. 30-1. Not so. A “house” is not a necessary element of gaming. For example, pari-mutuel wagering—a type of betting system where all bets or wagers are pooled and players bet against each other rather than a
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