Appeals Court Denies Kalshi Stay Request in Nevada, Temporary Restraining Order May Be Next

• The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a stay request from Kalshi in Nevada
• The prediction market company may now face a temporary restraining order from the Nevada Gaming Control Board
• If granted, Kalshi would have to remove its sports event contracts from the state for 14 days

Kalshi may be running out of options in Nevada and could soon face a temporary restraining order in the state for its sports event contracts.

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday denied the prediction market’s request for an administrative stay. The decision now leaves Kalshi open to potential legal action from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which levied a lawsuit against the company last month.

The board filed an application for an immediate temporary restraining order and motion for preliminary injunction against Kalshi, which if upheld would require the company to cease offering its sports event contracts in the state for 14 days.

Running Out of Options

According to Daniel Wallach, a sports betting and gaming attorney, Kalshi’s only potential relief from the temporary restraining order may be SCOTUS emergency intervention.

If an emergency intervention does not come, Kalshi will likely have to cease offering its sports event contracts in the state for 14 days until a preliminary injunction hearing can be held. A temporary restraining order is not appealable under Nevada state law, so Kalshi would have no choice but to ban the contracts for two weeks.

The NGCB considers sports event contract, and certain other event contracts, to constitute illegal sports betting activity under state law. The board filed an application for an immediate temporary restraining order and motion for preliminary injunction against Kalshi last month, which would likely require the company to geofence Nevada and prohibit the trading of sports event contracts.

A Year Long Fight in Nevada

Legal action between the company and Nevada has been ongoing now for nearly a year.

KalshiEX LLC filed its lawsuit against the NGCB for a cease-and-desist notice sent to the company regarding their sports event prediction markets on March 30, 2025.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board levied a cease-and-desist notice against Kalshi in early March, ordering the company to stop offering its sports event contract markets in the state by March 14, 2025. Kalshi did not acquiesce to the notice.

Kalshi argues that Congress previously gave the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) exclusive jurisdiction to regulate futures trading on approved exchanges. As the CFTC has allowed Kalshi to launch its sports event contract markets, state law cannot “intrude on the comprehensive federal scheme for regulating designated exchanges.”