Judge blocks Kalshi sports betting on two California tribal lands

Federal judge bars Kalshi sports contracts on two California tribal lands

A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on Monday blocking Kalshi from offering sports event contracts across the lands of two California tribes, covering contracts linked to 14 sports categories.

The Ninth Circuit had already ruled that the tribes were likely to demonstrate the contracts constitute Class III gaming under federal law. The district court's injunction follows from that finding, translating appellate probability into an operational prohibition while the underlying case proceeds.

The ruling adds a new enforcement mechanism to the legal pressure Kalshi is absorbing across multiple jurisdictions. Where state regulators in Utah, Ohio, and elsewhere have issued cease-and-desist orders or criminal charges, this injunction originates from federal court and rests on tribal gaming law rather than state securities or gambling statutes. That is a structurally distinct basis for exclusion, one that neither CFTC designation as a DCM nor federal preemption arguments easily reach.