Kalshi in New Jersey: Legal Status

Status as of September 28, 2026

Three documents fix Kalshi's position in New Jersey, and none of them ends the matter. The first is the Division of Gaming Enforcement's cease and desist letter of March 27, 2025, which says the Division "has determined that" Kalshi "is listing unauthorized sports wagers for individuals located within the State of New Jersey" and asked for written confirmation by the next day that the exchange had stopped [1]. The second is the District of New Jersey's order of April 28, 2025 in KalshiEX LLC v. Flaherty, 1:25-cv-02152, which granted Kalshi's motion and enjoined the Division, the Casino Control Commission, their named officers and the Attorney General "from pursuing civil or criminal enforcement actions against Kalshi concerning its sports-related event contracts", on a bond of one hundred thousand dollars [2]. The third is the Third Circuit's judgment of April 6, 2026 in No. 25-1922, which "ORDERED and ADJUDGED" that the April 28, 2025 order "is hereby AFFIRMED", with costs against the appellants [9]. The state has asked the Supreme Court to review that judgment: its petition, filed September 2, 2026, is docketed as No. 26-299, and Kalshi's response is due November 9, 2026 [7]. The letter, the injunction and the appeal all concern sports-related event contracts; nothing located in New Jersey's record speaks to the exchange's other contracts.

What the record shows

The district court file opens on March 29, 2025 with the complaint (Doc 1), the letter as Exhibit 1 (Doc 1-1) and the motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction (Doc 2) [24]. A hearing set for April 2 was adjourned after a joint letter from the parties, the opinion recording that the letter's compliance date had been pushed to April 30, 2025, and the court set briefing through April 23 [3, 4]. Judge Edward S. Kiel's 16-page opinion of April 28, 2025 (Doc 21) says the motion "will be GRANTED" and fixes the bond at one hundred thousand dollars to "mirror that of the maximum fine of a violation under the Sports Wagering Act" [4]; the order (Doc 22) follows the same day [2]. The Casino Association of New Jersey was admitted as amicus on May 6, 2025 [3]. Kalshi posted the bond on May 7, dismissed the Division, the Commission and their members without prejudice on May 8 [20], and the two remaining defendants noticed their appeal the same day [3]. On May 21, 2025 the court stayed the case and ordered a joint status report within 21 days of the Third Circuit's mandate [19].

The appeal, No. 25-1922, was docketed on May 15, 2025 and expedited the next day [6]. Amicus briefs on the merits were filed in June and July 2025, among them one for 34 states, the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands supporting New Jersey and one for the Casino Association of New Jersey, with briefs for Kalshi from exchange operators and former members of Congress [6]. The panel heard argument on September 10, 2025 [6] and filed its precedential opinion on April 6, 2026: "Because Kalshi has demonstrated a reasonable chance of success on its argument that the Commodity Exchange Act ('the Act') preempts otherwise applicable state law, we will affirm", Judge Porter writing for the court and Judge Roth dissenting [5]. The judgment of the same day affirmed the April 28, 2025 order with costs taxed against the appellants [9], and the certified judgment issued in lieu of a mandate on April 28, 2026 [10].

Back in the district court, the parties' joint status report of May 18, 2026 said the defendants "intend to seek further review of the Third Circuit's decision in the U.S. Supreme Court" and asked that the stay continue [11]; the court agreed on May 19, 2026, the next report to come within 21 days of a decision on certiorari [12]. A further report on June 16, 2026 gave July 6, 2026 as the deadline to seek certiorari [13]. Two extensions from Justice Alito, granted July 1 and July 24, 2026, moved that deadline to September 3, 2026, and the petition went in on September 2 [7]. Its question presented is "Whether the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act preempted States from regulating sports bets that occur within their jurisdictions if those bets are offered on markets registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission" [8]. The petition was docketed on September 8, 2026, and on September 22 the Court extended Kalshi's time to respond to November 9, 2026, the same day a brief of amicus curiae from the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States was filed [7].

The state's other actions sit beside the case. New Jersey is among the six states named first on the comment letter of 41 attorneys general filed with the CFTC on April 30, 2026 in Docket No. 2026-05105, which names Kalshi and argues that sports-related event contracts fall outside the Commission's jurisdiction [21]. A second New Jersey matter, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC v. Flaherty, 1:25-cv-14723, rests on a cease and desist letter of the same date to Robinhood; its consent order of August 22, 2025 enjoins enforcement against Robinhood "due to Robinhood's involvement in transactions of sports-related event contracts traded on KalshiEX LLC's designated contract market" [18].

Kalshi's own documents say nothing about New Jersey. The Member Agreement read on September 28, 2026 lists foreign countries and sanctioned territories as Restricted Jurisdictions and no U.S. state [14]; the list arrived by exchange notice on November 4, 2025 [15], and the newest notice, dated September 20, 2026, concerns text messaging [16]. The CFTC's list records Kalshi as designated on November 3, 2020, with its order modified on January 17, 2025 [17]. The state law the letter invokes is N.J.S.A. 5:12A-11, whose subsection (c) confines sports pools to licensees and makes offering one without approval a crime of the fourth degree [22], and Article IV, Section VII, paragraph 2 of the state constitution, whose college-sports sentence the letter quotes [23].

What is not documented

The record located reaches Kalshi's sports-related event contracts and stops. No New Jersey letter, order, filing or statute located here names Kalshi's contracts on elections, economic data or anything else, and this page draws no conclusion about them. The state courts' civil docket was not searched, so no state-court filing is asserted either way. Several docket entries have no copy in the public archive, among them the order of May 9, 2025 granting the partial dismissal and the Third Circuit's amicus briefs, which are described here from the docket text and not from the documents. The search is repeated on October 12, 2026.

What happens next

Kalshi's response to the petition in No. 26-299 is due on November 9, 2026 [7]. Within 21 days of the Supreme Court's decision to grant or deny certiorari, or of its final disposition if certiorari is granted, the parties owe the district court a joint status report [12]. Kalshi's notice of November 4, 2025 reserves the right to change its restricted list at any time, so the Member Agreement is re-read at every review [15]. This page is reviewed again on October 12, 2026, and sooner if a filing, order, regulator notice or exchange notice naming New Jersey appears. Nothing here forecasts how the Supreme Court or the district court will act.

What this page does not do

This page is not legal advice, and nothing on this site is. It does not say whether any person may lawfully trade on Kalshi from New Jersey, does not characterize the exchange's contracts as wagers or as swaps, does not address tax treatment, and does not predict any court's decision. It sets out documents by name, number and date, quotes their operative words, and says where the record is silent. The review interval is 14 days, with an immediate re-read on any filing, ruling, regulator action or exchange notice naming New Jersey; a correction is made on the page with the date of the change.