Massachusetts court orders Kalshi to halt sports betting in US first

A Massachusetts court has issued a temporary injunction ordering prediction market operator Kalshi to stop offering sports betting markets, Decrypt reported. The ruling is the first of its kind in the United States. The outlet noted that such injunctions are typically granted when a plaintiff is likely to win the case. The court explained that before March of last year, Kalshi advertised itself as the "first nationwide legal sports betting platform." Although it now describes its service as a "regulated exchange dedicated to trading on the outcome of specific events," the court found Kalshi's model to be similar to other forms of digital gambling. Following the ruling, state regulators are expected to ban Kalshi from offering sports betting contracts as early as this Friday. The decision comes as numerous state governments have sought to regulate prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket as sports betting platforms. The platforms have argued that they offer event contracts regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), not state-regulated sports betting contracts. In a separate case, a federal court in Tennessee recently ordered the state to temporarily withdraw a cease-and-desist order it had issued against Kalshi.