Kalshi CEO: 'Not Very Concerned' About Cease-And-Desists As Nevada Decision Looms
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said “we're not necessarily very concerned” about a series of states saying that the prediction markets platform is offering illegal sports betting, in a recent Tech Crunch interview.
Mansour’s comments come ahead of potentially a pivotal day in Kalshi’s legal wrangling around the country.
What Mansour said
Mansour sounded confident in Kalshi’s legal argument even as four different states (Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio and Illinois) have sent cease-and-desist letters to his company. Several more states have said they are investigating Kalshi’s nationwide rollout of sports event trading, which is functionally, if not legally, the equivalent of sports betting.
Mansour insisted that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and federal law is all that matters in Kalshi’s case.
“If the CFTC tells us to stop, we will absolutely stop,” Mansour said. “And if they don’t, then we won’t.”
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Echoing arguments from Kalshi’s lawsuits in Nevada and New Jersey, Mansour said “state law doesn't really apply” to Kalshi’s offering.
“The core of why we're not necessarily very concerned is we are regulated
at the federal level….”
Mansour blamed the C&Ds on a “massive casino lobby that's unhappy about this.”
You can watch the interview here:
Big day looms in Nevada lawsuit
Kalshi filed a lawsuit just over a week ago asking for a federal court to stop Nevada from enforcing its March cease-and-desist order.
A hearing is set for Tuesday on whether the court will grant Kalshi a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Nevada enforcement. If Kalshi doesn’t get its way, it may have to pull out of a state for the first time since it promoted the idea that it was offering legal sports betting in all 50 states.
“The hearing tomorrow in Las Vegas tees up the key issue of whether Congress intended for CFTC regulation at the federal level to preempt sports-related gaming regulation by the states,” said Ryan Rodenberg, a Florida State University professor who is an expert in the legal history of sports betting in the US.
“At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge will either immediately issue a ruling directly from the bench or release a ruling after deliberating for a short time in chambers.”
There are deadlines for reply and response briefs in the case on April 11 and April 18.