Following a federal court ruling which prohibited Kalshi from offering or accepting event contracts related to sports, elections, politics, culture, technology and science in Washington, the operator alleged state regulators used “selective-nonenforcement” when filing legal action.
According to a letter obtained by The Spokesman-Review in Washington, a lawyer who had represented Kalshi noted how the state’s Attorney General’s Office has “not taken any action against any other” prediction market operator.
The letter stated: “This is particularly surprising as it relates to the Attorney General’s non-enforcement against Polymarket, which, along with its CFTC-licensed DCM, operates an unregistered, offshore platform that accounts for the majority of its business and offers many categories of event contracts that are prohibited by the CFTC.
“Put simply, a regulator with a legitimate concern regarding consumers would not block the door for one allegedly non-compliant operator but prop it open for all others.”
The Washington Attorney General’s Office refuted Kalshi’s claims, and confirmed the operator had been the largest active across the state prior to the ruling made by King County Superior Court Judge John McHale on August 14.
McHale believed the state is likely to succeed in its claims that Kalshi violated gambling and consumer protection laws in Washington, while the underlying lawsuit was filed by Attorney General Nick Brown in March.
Kalshi previously argued its event contract trading services are regulated under the federal authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which has “exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets.
On August 31, Kalshi enforced its first-ever lifetime ban on former US congressman George Santos – who had been accused of insider trading efforts – as well as issued a fine of $71,356 according to a disciplinary filing from the operator.
Kalshi’s compliance team performed its own review of Santos’ alleged activity, finding reasonable cause that the former politician was involved in unlawful trades on the platform.
Kalshi formed a new partnership with The Weather Company on August 28 to verify outcomes and integrate real-time probability data within The Weather Channel application and website
