Louisiana sues Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood and Coinbase and wins a same-day order to stop their event contracts, as the CFTC sues Arkansas

A Louisiana state judge has ordered Kalshi, Polymarket US, Robinhood, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gemini and other prediction market operators to stop offering event contracts to anyone in Louisiana, hours after Attorney General Liz Murrill sued them on Thursday 12 November. Judge Jeffrey Johnson of the 21st Judicial District Court in Tangipahoa Parish signed the temporary restraining order without hearing the companies at 3:48 p.m. local time (21:48 UTC), according to RG, which read a copy of the order Murrill posted on X. The petition targets about 30 corporate entities behind ten brands, and it asks for a preliminary injunction and civil penalties.

The order runs until 22 November unless the court extends it. A hearing on the preliminary injunction is set for 30 November at 9 a.m. local time (15:00 UTC), according to UPI and RG. Kalshi has asked a federal court in the same state to block Louisiana first, and no federal ruling had been reported by Friday evening.

Washington moved too. On Friday 13 November the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that it and the United States had sued Arkansas, the state that went after Kalshi in its own courts on 4 November. Arkansas is the 11th state the CFTC has sued over prediction markets, the agency said. Its release does not mention Louisiana.

Louisiana sues prediction markets and wins a same-day restraining order

Murrill filed the petition earlier on Thursday in Tangipahoa Parish, a state court north of New Orleans. Its title, as reported by local outlets, asks for a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, civil penalties and “other relief”. The state’s case is simple: an event contract on a football game, an election or the Oscars is a bet, and only licensed gaming operators can take bets in Louisiana.

The filing gives examples taken from Kalshi’s own market list, WBRZ reported: control of the US Senate, the next White House press secretary, Oscar winners, Federal Reserve interest rates and the college football championship. Online, the state argues, “virtually anything can become a wager”.

The judge agreed the state did not need to wait. “The equities and the public interest overwhelmingly warrant immediate relief,” Johnson wrote, according to UPI. He found that the companies’ conduct harmed Louisiana “in its sovereign capacity” as well as its residents. The petition, he wrote, “makes clear” that the companies are violating La. R.S. 14:90.3, the state’s gambling-by-computer law, RG reported.

What the order requires

The restraining order goes further than a ban on new sports bets. According to RG, the companies must stop offering, listing, accepting, clearing or otherwise facilitating event contracts, including those tied to sports, elections and awards, for anyone located in Louisiana without a state gaming licence and permit. They must geofence the state, which means blocking users located there. They may not tell anyone in Louisiana that their contracts are lawful, licensed or authorized there. The order also binds their officers, employees and anyone acting in concert with them who learns of it.

Johnson required no bond from the state and gave the companies no prior notice, finding that they had “constructive notice” of the petition through the media, Bitcoin.com News reported. The dates leave a gap: unless Johnson extends the order or the companies consent, it lapses on 22 November, eight days before the hearing where they can argue back for the first time.

Compliance was not immediate. At 7 p.m. local time on Thursday, Louisiana users could still buy contracts on Kalshi, The Advocate reported, as relayed by RG. By Friday evening no report said whether any of the ten operators had switched off Louisiana since then.

Who is named: prediction markets, brokers and crypto exchanges

Louisiana did not stop at the two best-known prediction markets. The petition joins pure event-contract exchanges with a retail broker and three crypto exchanges that sell prediction products. The Block lists ten brands; WBRZ gives the legal entities behind most of them.

WBRZ also lists North American Derivatives Exchange Inc. (Nadex) and IG Group Holdings PLC among the defendants. Counts differ by outlet: UPI says 30 entities, Bitcoin.com News 31, because each brand comes with affiliates such as Robinhood Derivatives and Coinbase Financial Markets, which RG lists among those named in the order.

For crypto users the list matters more than the headline. Coinbase, Crypto.com and Gemini are now defendants in a gambling case because of products that sit next to their spot trading apps. Robinhood told The Block its event contracts are “federally regulated by the CFTC” and offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, a registered entity.

The attorney general’s case: ‘you aren’t legal’

Murrill announced the order on X at 5:48 p.m. local time on Thursday (23:48 UTC). Her post named Kalshi, Polymarket, Coinbase and Robinhood and summed up the state’s position: “It’s not complicated: if you aren’t a licensed gaming operator, you aren’t legal.”

The same post warns that illegal gambling “is a crime and is subject to jail time and significant penalties”. In statements reported by The Block, she said the companies “violated our laws with impunity” and that she wanted “an immediate restraining order and an injunction to restore the rule of law in Louisiana”. The petition asks for civil penalties but no amount has been published.

The state has been building toward this for a year. The Louisiana Gaming Control Board issued an advisory in December 2025 saying it “sees no defense to offering such activity pursuant to a CFTC license”, a line Kalshi quotes in its own federal complaint, according to Bitcoin.com News. That complaint also says gambling by computer can carry fines of up to $100,000 and up to five years in prison under Louisiana law.

Kalshi and Polymarket were already in federal court

The state suit did not surprise Kalshi. On 23 October it sued Murrill, Governor Jeff Landry and the Gaming Control Board in the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, arguing that the Commodity Exchange Act gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over contracts on its exchange. On Thursday it filed an emergency motion for its own restraining order and preliminary injunction in that case, saying it expected the state to “initiate an action against Kalshi in state court”, The Block reported. No ruling had appeared on the federal docket by Friday morning, according to Bitcoin.com News.

Polymarket’s US entity, QCX LLC, filed a separate challenge against Murrill and the board on 27 October in the Eastern District of Louisiana. The two federal cases now run in parallel with a state order that already binds both companies.

Kalshi’s head of litigation, Jovy Dedaj, answered on X: “The operation of federally regulated exchanges is the exclusive province of the federal government. Full stop.” Coinbase described the states’ approach as fragmented and said the suit was filed “while multiple federal appellate courts actively consider the same issues”, per The Block. The Coalition for Prediction Markets called it “a troubling and unlawful attempt” to assert state authority over federally governed markets. Cody Carbone, chief executive of the Digital Chamber, called the suit “outrageous”, UPI reported. Kalshi and Polymarket did not answer The Advocate’s requests for comment.

Louisiana is the 11th state to sue one or more prediction markets, by The Block’s count, after Arkansas, Utah and Connecticut among others. Utah went furthest, with criminal charges against Kalshi and its two founders in October, which we covered when they were filed.

CFTC sues Arkansas over its Kalshi case

The CFTC’s answer to the states came from Arkansas, not Louisiana. In a release dated 13 November, the agency said it had filed suit against Arkansas “as the Agency Defends its Federal Jurisdiction Over Prediction Markets”. The complaint, brought by the United States and the CFTC against the State of Arkansas and Attorney General Tim Griffin, was filed on 12 November in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas (case 4:26-cv-01255).

The target is the state case Griffin opened on 4 November in the Circuit Court of Independence County against Kalshi Inc. and KalshiEX LLC. According to the CFTC’s complaint, Arkansas calls Kalshi “in large part” a “straightforward gambling platform” and wants to stop it, recover money from Arkansas consumers and impose civil penalties. Arkansas also sues under its deceptive trade practices law, which allows civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation; counted that way, the CFTC says, the penalties could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

The federal claim rests on the Supremacy Clause. The CFTC argues that event contracts on Kalshi are swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act, that Kalshi is a designated contract market the agency approved in November 2020, and that Arkansas law is preempted in three ways: expressly, by occupying the field, and by conflict. It asks the court for a declaration to that effect and for a preliminary and permanent injunction barring Arkansas from investigating CFTC-regulated exchanges, their affiliates and partners, or enforcing state law against trades on them.

“The CFTC will continue to defend its sole jurisdiction over these federally regulated markets,” Chairman Michael Selig said in the release, adding that the Commission “will not let state interference thwart its regulatory efforts”. The agency said it has also filed amicus briefs in four federal courts of appeals and one state supreme court. It has used this route before: in October the United States and the CFTC sued Utah to stop its Kalshi case, as we reported.

The complaint cites courts that sided with the exchanges: the Third Circuit in KalshiEX v. Flaherty, a 2 October ruling for Coinbase Financial Markets in the Northern District of Illinois, and a July ruling in a federal case against Minnesota. Other courts have gone the other way, which is why Coinbase points to “multiple federal appellate courts” still weighing the question. Whether the CFTC will sue Louisiana too is not known: its Arkansas release is silent on it.

The geofencing clash with the CFTC

Louisiana’s order lands on a direct conflict. The judge orders the companies to geofence the state. On 5 November the CFTC gave exchanges 30 days to end state-level geographic restrictions or explain why they cannot, a step we covered last week. Selig said such restrictions were inconsistent with the Act’s impartial access requirement, according to Bitcoin.com News, and Kalshi’s October complaint argued that cutting off Louisiana residents would “inevitably violate” that rule.

An exchange that obeys the state court risks a problem with its federal regulator, and one that obeys the CFTC risks contempt in Louisiana. The federal judges in the Western and Eastern Districts of Louisiana can settle that only by ruling on the companies’ motions, and none had done so by Friday evening.

The federal agency is not a pure ally of the platforms either. CNBC reported on 11 November that the CFTC is examining whether Kalshi properly notified it of proposed contracts, and Reuters reported a CFTC look at whether Polymarket breached its 2022 settlement, according to The Block.

What it means for users in Louisiana and elsewhere

The order is aimed at operators, not at customers. Murrill’s warning about jail time concerns those who run unlicensed gambling, and no source reports any step against people who bought contracts. What happens to open positions held by Louisiana residents, and to their balances, is not addressed in the reports of the order. Users there should watch for notices from the platforms themselves.

Outside Louisiana nothing changes for now: a state court order has no effect in other states or abroad. In the European Union these platforms are a separate matter. Polymarket is already blocked in France, and the Louisiana case has no bearing on French or Italian rules. For how event contracts work and why states call them bets, see our guide to prediction markets and the law, and for Kalshi’s licence and its other state fights, our Kalshi project page.

Dates to watch

The restraining order expires on 22 November unless Judge Johnson extends it or the companies agree to a longer term. The preliminary injunction hearing in Tangipahoa Parish is on 30 November at 9 a.m. local time. Before then, a ruling on Kalshi’s emergency motion in the Western District of Louisiana could set the federal court against the state court. In Arkansas, the CFTC’s suit now sits beside the state’s Kalshi case, and the CFTC’s 30-day window on geoblocking closes in early December.