Kalshi Settles Nevada Contempt Case — Agrees to GeoComply Geofencing as Hearing Is Canceled
Kalshi and the Nevada Gaming Control Board have reached a settlement agreement ending the state's contempt proceedings against the prediction market platform. Under the deal, Kalshi must implement a GeoComply-powered multi-source geofencing system to block Nevada residents from accessing its sports, election, and entertainment markets by August 12 — or pay $120,000 per day. The contempt hearing scheduled for July had been triggered by evidence that NGCB investigators successfully purchased prohibited contracts on Kalshi's platform eight times in four days while physically inside Nevada.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board and Kalshi have agreed to a joint settlement that cancels the state's contempt proceedings against the prediction market platform. The deal, announced July 24, requires Kalshi to implement a multi-source geofencing system provided by GeoComply — one of the largest commercial geolocation vendors in the US gaming industry — and to have it fully operational by August 12, 2026. If Kalshi misses that deadline, it will be subject to $120,000 in daily fines until compliance is confirmed. NGCB Chair Mike Dreitzer said Kalshi had already begun working with GeoComply on implementation at the time the agreement was announced.
The contempt proceedings arose from what the NGCB described as systematic failures in Kalshi's geofencing implementation after a May 18 court order required the company to block Nevada users from accessing sports, election, and entertainment event contracts. Board investigators subsequently purchased prohibited contracts on the Kalshi platform eight times across four days — May 28, 30, 31, and June 1, 2026 — while physically located inside Nevada, defeating Kalshi's in-house geofencing system. The system Kalshi built in response to the original May court order cost approximately $190,000 and relied primarily on IP address data. GeoComply's Senior Vice President Chad Kornett testified at the July contempt hearing that commercial-grade geofencing solutions can typically be implemented in one to two weeks — directly undercutting Kalshi's earlier argument that compliant geofencing was technically prohibitive.
The GeoComply requirement is significant beyond the Nevada case. Kalshi simultaneously faces an August 12 geofencing deadline in Michigan — imposed July 13 after the state extended its temporary restraining order and raised the daily fine to $500,000 — and the Michigan compliance plan also involves GeoComply's technology. The convergence on GeoComply as the mandated vendor across two states reflects both its dominant position in the US gaming geolocation market (it is used by virtually all state-licensed sports betting operators) and the court record showing that Kalshi's proprietary IP-based blocking tool was inadequate in practice. What constitutes compliant geofencing in a state-court context has now effectively been defined: a commercial multi-source system from a recognized geolocation vendor, not an in-house tool built to a cost target.
The Nevada settlement resolves one strand of what had become the most adversarial regulatory confrontation in Kalshi's history. Nevada was the first state where geofencing enforcement reached the contempt stage — ahead of Michigan, where the original June 19 federal court ruling was followed by state-court enforcement that escalated separately. The settlement does not end the underlying litigation: the Nevada preliminary injunction remains in force and the NGCB's case against Kalshi continues. What it ends is the immediate contempt standoff, giving Kalshi a defined compliance path rather than an imminent judicial finding of contempt. Whether the GeoComply system performs as required — blocking Nevada residents while not blocking traders who happen to be passing through the state or using VPNs — will be tested when the NFL regular season begins in September, the highest-volume period for sports event contracts on any platform.
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Utah Files Felony Charges Against Kalshi and Its Founders — Second State to Criminally Charge a Platform
Utah filed criminal charges against Kalshi and its two co-founders, Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, on October 28 — 13 felonies and a misdemeanor, including a second-degree 'pattern of unlawful criminal activity' count and 12 counts of online gambling promotion. The charges stem from a September sting in which an undercover agent placed 12 sports wagers verified to be in Utah. The CFTC sued Utah the day before to block state enforcement, its tenth such suit. Utah is the second state after Arizona to criminally charge Kalshi, and the first to charge the founders personally. Kalshi called it a 'crazy overreach.'
NBA Names Kalshi and Polymarket Preferred Exchanges — Leaving the NFL Alone in Opposition
The NBA announced on October 26 that it has named Kalshi and Polymarket its 'preferred prediction market exchanges,' signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the CFTC on basketball integrity, and expanded its DraftKings deal to include prediction markets — the first league to extend a sportsbook partnership into the category. The exchange deals bar league and team personnel from trading NBA contracts, limit permissible markets, and require sharing of suspicious-trading data, in exchange for NBA intellectual property and official data. The NBA joins MLB, the NHL, and MLS as partnered leagues, leaving the NFL as the lone major holdout — and the only league fighting the platforms in court.
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CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said on October 23 that the agency is closely monitoring prediction markets for manipulation ahead of the November 3 midterms, and that it is separately scrutinizing oil market trading tied to President Trump's announcements about the war in Iran. Combined midterm open interest on Kalshi and Polymarket stood at $250 million as of October 18, with Kalshi holding 84%. Selig acknowledged the agency often catches political figures attempting to trade 'oftentimes after the fact.' The remarks highlight the CFTC's dual and somewhat conflicting role as both the platforms' federal protector and their manipulation watchdog, at a time when the agency has shed enforcement staff.