Nevada judge weighs $120,000 daily fine against Kalshi

A Nevada Gaming Control Board investigator picked up a mobile phone after the state court deadline had passed and bought event contracts on Kalshi without difficulty. That purchase, documented in a NGCB filing, is now the factual center of a contempt proceeding in Carson City district court, where the board is asking a judge to impose a $120,000-per-day fine for what it describes as ongoing violations of a court order that required Kalshi to stop offering sports, election, and entertainment event contracts by August 12.

Kalshi's attorneys responded that the investigator had misrepresented their Nevada residence to circumvent geofencing restrictions, effectively arguing the violation was the board's, not Kalshi's.

The CFTC complicates the picture. On August 11, the agency invoked emergency authority to direct Kalshi to keep operating under federal standards after New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the platform on July 31, seeking more than $36 billion in damages. Joe Webster, a partner at Hobbs Strauss, said publicly on Wednesday that a federal agency directing a company to continue operating in defiance of a state court order was a power the CFTC does not have. The courts, he said, hold that function.