Case: 2:25-cv-01165-SDM-CMV Doc #: 34-1 Filed: 11/14/25 Page: 18 of 22 PAGEID #: 536
Kalshi very clearly offers sports betting: contracts that stake or risk something of value upon the outcome of a sporting event based on the understanding that the person will receive something of value based on that outcome. Kalshi does not deny this. Instead, Kalshi ignores that its sports-event contracts are sports bets by another name, and maintains the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction over its sports-event contracts as “swaps.” Pl.’s Mot. Supp. Prelim. Inj., ECF No. 11 at PageID 227–28, 323–33. As discussed above, this argument fails. Instead, Kalshi offers class III gaming (sports betting) in violation of IGRA—Kalshi has not obtained a license to offer its sports betting pursuant to tribal ordinance or resolution; nor has Kalshi been authorized to conduct its sports betting pursuant to any tribal-state compact. See 25 U.S.C. § 2710(d)(1) (class III gaming on Indian lands is only lawful if it is: (1) authorized by tribal ordinance or resolution; (2) located in a state that permits such gaming; and (3) conducted in accordance with a tribal-state gaming compact). Across the board, Kalshi does not geographically restrict its sports-event contracts and, therefore, offers such sports betting on Indian lands in violation of IGRA. Kalshi may argue, as it did in the Fourth Circuit, that UIGEA’s definition of “bet or wager” excludes transactions on DCMs, and that this exclusion should be read into IGRA to avoid a conflict between the two statutes . See Opening Brief for Appellant at 69, Martin , No. 25-1892, ECF No. 16. But while UIGEA may provide insight as to what the term “sports betting” generally means, the exceptions to such definition from UIGEA should not be read into IGRA. As Kalshi points out, UIGEA exempts trading on DCMs when “conducted … under the [CEA].” See 31 U.S.C. § 5362(1)(E)(ii). However, that exclusion not only requires such trading
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”).
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