Kalshi CEO Blames Gambling Lobby for New York Lawsuit

TLDR

• New York is suing Kalshi for running an unlicensed gambling platform.
• Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour says gambling companies are pushing the lawsuit.
• The lawsuit claims Kalshi let users aged 18 to 20 place bets, breaking state law.
• The CFTC says it has sole authority over Kalshi and is fighting New York’s case.
• New York wants money back for users and fines of $100,000 per illegal bet.

New York has filed a lawsuit against Kalshi, a prediction markets platform. The state claims Kalshi has been operating as an unlicensed gambling site.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour responded to the lawsuit on CNBC’s Squawk Box. He said the case is not really about state versus federal rules.

Instead, Mansour argued that gambling companies are behind the legal action. He said these companies are worried about losing customers to prediction markets.

“You have an industry, the prediction market industry, that is disruptive, that is growing fast, consumers are adopting it, and it’s threatening a legacy incumbent industry that is unhappy about that,” Mansour said.

He also said prediction markets are not operating in a legal gray area. Kalshi works under oversight from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, known as the CFTC.

The Lawsuit’s Claims

New York’s Attorney General filed the complaint against Kalshi on July 31. The lawsuit compares Kalshi’s event contracts to gambling bets.

The complaint says outcomes on Kalshi are uncertain and depend on chance. Because of this, the state says Kalshi needs a gambling license it does not have.

The lawsuit also claims Kalshi allowed New Yorkers between 18 and 20 years old to use the platform. This age group is below the legal betting age in the state.

New York wants Kalshi to pay back money that users lost. The state is also seeking fines of $100,000 for each illegal bet offered to New York residents.

Kalshi’s Defense and CFTC Support

CFTC Chairman Michael Selig spoke out against New York’s lawsuit. He said Attorney General Letitia James is trying to force a shutdown of prediction markets across the country.

Selig said this kind of shutdown attempt has not happened before. He confirmed the CFTC has already filed its own lawsuit to protect its authority over the industry.

Mansour said Kalshi tried to work with New York before the lawsuit was filed. He said the company offered to pay a 10% tax on its New York business.

The state did not accept that offer. Mansour said shutting down Kalshi would upset a large number of New York users, since the platform has about one million customers there.

Mansour also pointed to earnings made by Kalshi users in the state. He said New Yorkers made close to $200 million using Kalshi in 2026, an amount he said would not have been possible through regular gambling platforms.

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