Robinhood and Coinbase were among four operators who agreed to pull sports event contracts out of Ohio following a cease-and-desist order sent by the Ohio Casino Control Commission on October 6.
MooMoo Financial, Robinhood and Gemini each agreed to pull sports event contracts out of Ohio immediately, while Coinbase will stop offering such trades by November 13.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission issued cease-and-desist orders to 10 prediction market operators, including Polymarket and Underdog who remain in litigation with the regulator.
Currently, the Ohio Casino Control Commission is engaged in discussions with Novig, ProphetX and WeBull over compliance terms, as all 10 operators were originally given 14 days to comply with the order.
“The Ohio Casino Control Commission has jurisdiction over all persons conducting or participating in the conduct of sports gaming in the State of Ohio. The Commission is hereby putting you on notice that by offering ‘event contracts’ on sporting events to persons located in the State of Ohio, without a sports gaming license, (the operator is) violating Ohio law,” the enforcement action stated.
“This includes soliciting or accepting orders for sports event contracts listed on DCMs from persons located in Ohio, as well as operating an FCM or DCM that offers sports event contracts to persons located in Ohio.”
The regulator sent cease-and-desist orders shortly after the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Kalshi in September, finding the operator failed to establish that its sports event contracts fall exclusively under federal regulation.
The court said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's exclusive jurisdiction primarily concerns direct regulation and operation of DCMs, rather than displacing state laws that incidentally affect activity conducted through them.
Ohio and 38 other US states – along with the District of Columbia – urged the US Supreme Court to review New Jersey regulators' dispute with Kalshi over sports event contracts in October as well.
Robinhood Markets formed an agreement with the MGCB on September 9 to restrict its sports event contracts until litigation regarding prediction markets legality has been decided upon
