USCA4 Appeal: 25-1892
Doc: 44
Filed: 12/22/2025
Pg: 25 of 39
contracts simply do not fall under this definition and Congress therefore could not have intended to repeal IGRA. 9 See ECF No. 27, at 51–56. First, Kalshi’s sports-event contracts are not dependent on the occurrence , nonoccurrence, or extent of the occurrence of a sports event—i.e., whether the sports event occurs—but rather on the outcome of the sports event (or parts thereof)—i.e., which team wins or who scores a touchdown. In three recent decisions, the Nevada District Court held that sports bets are not swaps for precisely this reason. Crypto.com , 2025 WL 2916151, at *1; Hendrick , 2025 WL 3286282, at *3; Robinhood Derivatives, LLC v. Dreitzer , No. 2:25-cv-1541, 2025 WL 3283308, at *1 (D. Nev. Nov. 25, 2025). Second, there is no “financial, commercial, or economic consequence” associated with Kalshi’s sports-betting contracts. Aside from whether the purchaser of a sports-betting contract wins or loses their bet, Kalshi’s sports-betting contracts have no direct financial consequences for the purchaser. To constitute a swap, the underlying event itself “must be inherently associated
9 Kalshi has previously argued that its preemption argument applies even if its sports-betting contracts are not swaps because they involve “excluded commodities.” But even under that theory, 7 U.S.C. § 2(a) “does not state that the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction over excluded commodities, which are defined separately from commodities.” Hendrick , 2025 WL 3286282, at *11
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