Utah hits Kalshi and co-founders with 14 criminal charges over sports betting
Utah's attorney general files felony and misdemeanor gambling-promotion charges against Kalshi and its founders, a day after the CFTC sued to block the state's enforcement.
What to know
- Utah's AG charged Kalshi and co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara with 14 counts, including a second-degree felony, based on an undercover agent's sports bets on the platform.
- The filing comes a day after the CFTC sued Utah to block the state from enforcing its anti-gambling laws against Kalshi, setting federal and state authority directly against each other.
- Only Arizona had previously brought a criminal case against Kalshi, and a federal judge blocked that prosecution; Utah's case tests whether that outcome repeats.
- The dispute centers on whether prediction markets are federally regulated derivatives (Kalshi's and the CFTC's position) or unlawful gambling under state law (Utah's position), a jurisdictional question likely headed to the Supreme Court.
“Kalshi allowed Agent Eggerman to place a 'spread wager' of $5.00 that the University of Utah would be ahead of Utah State by 27.5 points at the end of the football game. The Kalshi platform indicated Agent Eggerman had a 53% chance for a payout. ... On September 19, 2026, at the end of the game, the University of Utah beat Utah State by 36 points, and Agent Eggerman won $4.13.”
Utah charging documents, Court filing · Deseret News · Oct 27
Derek Brown Utah Attorney General
Tarek Mansour Kalshi co-founderLuana Lopes Lara Kalshi co-founderKalshi Prediction market operatorCommodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Federal derivatives regulatorScott Eggerman Utah state investigator
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Kalshi calls charges political overreach, vows to fight in court
A Kalshi spokesperson dismisses the charges as politically motivated and says the company will contest them, pointing to its earlier success blocking Arizona's criminal case.
“This is a crazy overreach; Utah is clearly playing politics. We look forward to putting a stop to this in court, just like we did in Arizona.”
— Kalshi spokesperson -
God probably knows, but others might not have seen the Trump Admin siding with gambling over State Constitutions...
2 more of the top 3 · 51 posts in this stretch
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It's always plainly obvious what is illegal. Given the total lack of ambiguity, why do we even need all these courts and judges to decide stuff? After all, we're all intimately familiar the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974, relevant state laws, and how the constitution would control the interaction bewtween these. /sI despise…
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TL;DR: The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against Utah, seeking to overturn the state's ban on gambling for prediction markets, as part of a broader action against ten states attempting to restrict this emerging sector. https:// arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…
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Utah charges Kalshi and founders with 14 criminal counts
Utah AG Derek Brown files charges against Kalshi and co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara: one second-degree felony count of pattern of unlawful activity, 12 third-degree felony counts of online gambling promotion, and one misdemeanor count of general gambling promotion, citing an undercover agent who placed a dozen sports bets on the platform in September.
“Gambling is illegal in Utah, whether you place the bet, run the game, or promote it. Calling it a 'prediction market' doesn't change what it is, and being federally registered doesn't put a company above the law.”
— Derek Brown -
24 outlets first by ABC4 Utah, 13d ago · also Salt Lake Tribune, NPR Utah | KUER, Investing.com News, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Seeking Alpha +17 · read ↗
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14 outlets first by Bloomberg, 13d ago · also Guardian, CoinDesk, Associated Press, Orlando Sentinel, Mercury News, NBC News +7 · read ↗
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background
CFTC sues Utah to block state enforcement against Kalshi — The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission sues Utah seeking to block the state from enforcing its anti-gambling laws against Kalshi, asserting federal jurisdiction over prediction markets.
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Utah files civil lawsuit against Kalshi — Utah files a civil suit in Salt Lake County state court arguing Kalshi is subject to the state's anti-gambling laws, the opening move in the state's enforcement campaign.
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Federal judge rules Utah can enforce gambling law against Kalshi — A federal judge rules that federal law does not prevent Utah from enforcing its state gaming laws against Kalshi, rejecting the company's preemption argument.
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Arizona files first-ever criminal case against a CFTC-registered operator — Arizona charges Kalshi criminally, marking the first criminal prosecution of a CFTC-registered prediction market operator; a federal judge later blocks the prosecution and the state appeals.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by Inside Bitcoins, 14d ago · also Bitcoin News, Utah Attorney General
2 more headlines
- CFTC Sues Utah, Warns Kalshi Crackdown Threatens Federal Oversight Bitcoin News · 14d ago
- Utah sues Kalshi, alleging its prediction market is gambling Utah Attorney General · 14d ago
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first by Mastodon, 13d ago · also Ars Technica
What people are saying 21 voices from 4 sites · best of 51 · verbatim
- Nov 3
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Polymarket and Kalshi also fuel very immoral and criminal behaviour's and make the very worst in people come to surface. It's amplifying only the worst in humanity!I have heard and seen: Bet's on the live & fate of a celebrity, person, company, country, weather etc.. It's getting absurdly criminal. You've seen the guy in France burning a…
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When did the US develop this entrenched gambling problem?When I lived there online poker and day trading was the extent that what seemed like a smallish fraction of the population was into. Though a lot of people watched poker.Now it seems like there is a whole generation of people betting on everything from football to heads of state getting…
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> not sure specifically about the moral crusade against Kalshi and PolymarketWe're broadly feeling the effects from broad-spectrum gambling addiction. It's hitting our kids. It's hitting our young men. It's hitting our elderly. Restrictions on social media, regulation around gambling and folks trying to drink less are all, it seems, part of a…
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Kalshi is a trading platform. It's been more reliable than the stock market in my experience.In the times I traded sports contracts, I was able to reverse a trade during the event to prevent a total loss of contract investment, and buy back in if the momentum changed. But usually for the times I bought sports contracts and allowed it to complete…
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> They know what they are doing is illegalThis is a bad take. What they are doing is quite obviously legal right now. Federal law trumps state law and the feds have an opinion, despite being weird and controversial.There are a number of ongoing legal battles about the federal laws but until they work their way through the courts, it's "legal"…
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Not sure - to the extent to which Kalshi is a nationwide futures market, it is hard to imagine a more clear "interstate commerce" example. Congress should probably just pass a law delegating regulation of "sports futures" to the states to remove any legal ambiguity. Sports gambling is obviously pretty net bad for young men.
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I'm not sure specifically about the moral crusade against Kalshi and Polymarket, but I am glad to see that at least one state is serious about its sovereignty and is willing to go to the mat with criminal charges. Utah 100% has a right to enforce this and I hope they are successful. And taking on the feds too, that is a gutsy move.We need at least…
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kalshi and polymarket are quite obvious gambling sites. any pedantic arguments to the contrary are strictly financial chaff to enhance their operating margins until the regulations finally catch up.they were never an innovating marketing play... it was the culmination of a gambling company committing to regulatory capture as evinced by Donald…
- Oct 31
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When people vote for a referendum or whatever, the majority wins. In Utah, the people vote for a referendum, but the state politicians over ride the majority. That is. Not legal. That’s called communism
- Oct 29
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Same week the NBA announced its new prediction market deals, Utah filed criminal charges against Kalshi and its founders for allegedly breaking its gambling laws and Reuters reported the CFTC is investigating Polymarket to see if it broke its 2022 enforcement agreement
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Fukushima practically had 3 natural disasters hit at the same time, and it wasn't as big of a disaster as it could have been
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Funny what the Administration decides is and is not up to the states
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Funny what the Administration decides is and is not up to the states https:// arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20 26/10/trump-admin-sues-utah-to-save-kalshi-from-the-states-total-ban-on-gambling/
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Point shaving and game fixing prosecutions have gone on for years before legalized gambling. I expect an industry destroying scandal will happen. The leagues are not doing squat to protect their sports.
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It’s a free money machine for them. I’d be shocked if they didn’t do everything in their power.
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Same principal applies to taxpayers in UT too. Both positions are frivolous and proof thatour current system lacks accountability at all levels of government.
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Pretty absurd to try to ban federally regulated futures; instead of sports markets specifically or parlays or something. Everything is so performatively adversial. No womder we collectively have such poor regulations. There’s barely any oxygen left in the room to debate them after zealots get attention for shouting at each other. .
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Heck other sites like Forbes had their own in-house "prediction market" now. Everyone's just looking for a piece of the pie.
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We are but it's just a drop on the bucket in the total corruption of trump and the republican party.
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Kalshi, cofounders hit with criminal charges in US state of Utah https://www. aljazeera.com/economy/2026/10/ 29/kalshi-co-founders-hit-with-criminal-charges-in-us-state-of-utah?traffic_source=rss # aljazeera # worldnews # VSN
- Oct 28
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Utah files felony criminal charges against Kalshi, alleging the wagering website illegally promoted gambling in the state. https://www. abc4.com/news/local-news/utah- criminal-charges-kalshi/