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Maryland is the latest state to issue a cease and desist letter to the prediction market Kalshi.
Kalshi offers a platform where both retail and institutional traders can place trades on various future events, including economic indicators, weather patterns, awards, as well as political and legislative outcomes.
Kalshi co-founder Tarek Mansour said Friday during an interview with TechCrunch on Friday he isn’t “necessarily very concerned” about cease-and-desist orders he received from five U.S. states.
“We are literally like a financial exchange, but the underlying trading is events,” Mansour said. “The CFTC is our regulator. If the CFTC tells us to stop, we will absolutely stop. If they don’t, then we won’t.
Among the states going after Kalshi: Nevada, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, and even Montana, which only offers retail sports betting....and now Maryland.
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Kalshi is not taking this sitting down either. They've already filed lawsuits in both Nevada and New Jersey.
The Maryland cease and desist letter specifically states that the sports events prediction markets being offered are "indistinguishable from sports wagering because they are based on the outcomes of sports events".
In other words, wagering on the economy and box office opening weekends is okay, sports gambling is not, at least according to Maryland regulators.
"The existence of these markets circumvents Maryland law," the letter continues.
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