COURTS
Feds seek to thwart New Mexico suit against Kalshi
Commodity Futures Trading Commission says it has sole authority to regulate prediction markets
The federal government has thrown its weight behind the New York-based prediction market company Kalshi Inc., which faces a New Mexico lawsuit alleging its sports-betting app violates state gambling laws.
New Mexico is the latest state targeted by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission over state efforts to rein in the activities of sports-betting platforms like Kalshi.
The ϼ States and the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed the suit last week in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque against New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, as well as other state officials and agencies.
The suit is a response to a lawsuit Torrez filed on June 4 in state district court, alleging Kalshi’s sports-betting app functions as a sportsbook in violation of state gambling laws and allows people under age 21 to gamble on sporting events.
“The only lawful gaming in New Mexico operates either under tribal-state gaming compacts, or under strict state regulations to ensure honest gaming free from corruption,” Torrez said at the time. “Kalshi has ignored that framework entirely while offering online sports betting within the state.”
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is asking a judge to issue an injunction that would block New Mexico’s effort to bring Kalshi under the purview of the state’s Gaming Control Act.
The suit argues that New Mexico law is subordinate to federal law, which gives the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission “exclusive jurisdiction” to regulate what it describes as “event contracts,” “swaps” or derivatives.
“The event contracts targeted by New Mexico are ‘swaps’ under the federal CEA (Commodities Exchange Act),” the suit contends. “New Mexico is not the first State that has attempted to invade the Commission’s exclusive jurisdiction over swaps.”
The federal agency has filed similar lawsuits against seven other states that have attempted to regulate “sports-related events contracts,” the agency said on its website.
“The ϼ States and the CFTC bring this action to halt (New Mexico’s) efforts to prohibit the operation of derivatives markets governed by federal law,” the suit said.
Torrez’s office did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment about the new lawsuit.
The state action followed a federal suit filed in May by three New Mexico pueblos and the Mescalero Apache Tribe, alleging Kalshi offers sports betting on tribal lands in violation of federal gambling laws and state-tribal compacts.
The two New Mexico lawsuits add to a growing list of legal actions nationwide that pit states and tribes against sports-wagering platforms for control of gambling within their jurisdictions.
Olivier Uyttebrouck covers the court system. You can reach him at olivier@abqjournal.com.