In New Jersey, the Court Order Binds the State, Not Kalshi, as the CFTC Tells Exchanges to Stop Geoblocking

The CFTC geoblocking deadline reaches New Jersey at an unusual angle: the one court order in force here restrains the state, not the exchange. As of November 6, 2026, the District of New Jersey's order of April 28, 2025 still enjoins the state's gaming regulators and its Attorney General "from pursuing civil or criminal enforcement actions against Kalshi concerning its sports-related event contracts," the Third Circuit affirmed that order on April 6, 2026, and no order in New Jersey's federal cases requires Kalshi or any other exchange to turn away a trader located in the state.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission acted on November 5, 2026, in Release No. 9323-26, by announcing an interpretation of Regulation 38.151(b), the rule that an exchange registered as a designated contract market give impartial access to its markets. For a reader in New Jersey the question is what that changes here, and the record answers it narrowly. The New Jersey demand on record that Kalshi stop serving people in the state, the Division of Gaming Enforcement's cease and desist letter of March 27, 2025, is the demand the federal injunction bars the state from enforcing, and the state has asked the Supreme Court to undo that injunction in a case, No. 26-299, that the interpretation does not mention.

What the CFTC told the exchanges

The release gives exchanges 30 days to "cease domestic geographic restrictions that violate the Impartial Access Requirements" or explain to the Division of Market Oversight why that is not feasible, and the same 30 days to make sure the brokers and apps that route customers to them are not imposing such limits either. "Derivatives markets must operate on a uniform basis at a national scale in order to achieve the purposes set out in the Commodity Exchange Act," Chairman Michael S. Selig said in the release. The six-page interpretation behind it was approved by the Commission subject to technical corrections and takes effect on the date it appears in the Federal Register, which had not published it as of 1:15 p.m. Eastern on November 6.

Its argument rests on market mechanics rather than on any state's law. A trader who opens a position in an open state and travels to a blocked one cannot manage it; removing one state's traders thins liquidity and widens spreads; some contracts draw most of their trading and their information from one place. The conclusion is stated as the Commission's belief: "the Commission believes that geographic access restrictions are inconsistent with the CEA and Commission rules and regulations." The document names no state, cites no court decision and says nothing about pending litigation. Whether the Commodity Exchange Act displaces a particular state's gambling law is a question courts are deciding, and New Jersey's case is one of them.

What is in force in New Jersey today

The state's case began with the Division's letter of March 27, 2025, which demanded that Kalshi "immediately cease and desist from offering any form of sports wagering to New Jersey residents and void any such wagers already placed." Kalshi sued in the District of New Jersey, and on April 28, 2025 Judge Edward S. Kiel granted its motion, enjoined the Division, the Casino Control Commission, their named officers and the Attorney General from civil or criminal enforcement against Kalshi over its sports-related event contracts, and set a bond of one hundred thousand dollars.

The Third Circuit kept that order in place. Its precedential opinion of April 6, 2026 opens: "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." It is a ruling on a preliminary injunction, not a final judgment, and on May 19, 2026 the district court agreed with both sides to keep the case stayed pending the Supreme Court's decision on whether to hear it and, if it does, its final ruling. The district court docket shows no entry after June 16, 2026.

The petition is the live front. New Jersey filed it on September 2, 2026, asking "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." The docket lists eleven friend-of-the-court briefs filed between September 22 and October 8, 2026, which the site's story on the briefs from 39 states, the NFL and Christopher Dodd describes, and an order of October 30, 2026 gives Kalshi until December 7, 2026 to respond, as the site's story on the extension reports. As of November 6 there is no docket entry after October 30.

Nothing in the November 5 interpretation amends, vacates or construes the April 28, 2025 order. That order is a court's; the interpretation is an agency's statement of how it reads its own rule. A reader in New Jersey who wants the full record, document by document, has it on the New Jersey legal status page and the Kalshi page.

New Jersey's stated position on the CFTC

New Jersey has already told the Commission where it stands. On April 30, 2026 it was among the six states named first, with Ohio, Nevada, New York, Tennessee and Utah, on a letter from 41 attorneys general to Chairman Selig in Docket No. 2026-05105, which says "the CFTC lacks exclusive jurisdiction over a broad range of sports-related contracts currently offered as event contracts." The petitioners in No. 26-299 are Mary Jo Flaherty, the Division's interim director, and Jennifer Davenport, the Attorney General.

Neither office had posted a statement on the interpretation by early Friday afternoon. The Attorney General's news page carried no statement on it as of 1:13 p.m. Eastern on November 6, 2026; its newest release, dated November 5, concerns the 2030 census. The Division of Gaming Enforcement's page, read a minute later, lists nothing after October 20, 2026.

Reaction in Washington came the same day. Senator Adam Schiff said on X on November 5 that "Sports prediction markets are sports bets" and called the move "the CFTC's most egregious attempt yet to undermine state law, the Tribes, and now, the courts." Selig, on X the same afternoon, wrote that "Geographic access restrictions undermine the national uniformity and consistency that the Act is intended to facilitate." Neither man spoke for New Jersey, and the state's own view remains the one in its letter and its petition.

The New Jersey markets the guidance describes

The interpretation's examples read like a list of this site's boards. On sports it says: "Insomuch as particular contracts attract disproportionately regional interest (e.g., whether a home team advances to its playoffs), excluding such regions could decrease the contracts' overall liquidity." That describes the contract on the Devils playoff market page, a question about New Jersey's home team that the site's story on the Devils' early-season price followed on November 5, 2026.

On elections it says: "Some statewide and more localized election markets may generate the most volume and/or knowledge from residents of the State or locality where the election takes place." The New Jersey Senate market page, on the statewide race on the November 3, 2026 ballot and covered in the site's story on the Senate result, is that kind of market. Both are named here as examples of what the guidance discusses. The guidance makes a general argument about liquidity and says nothing about any one board, and nothing in it is a claim about either price.

The guidance also reaches the middlemen. Its footnote 15 says exchanges "must take reasonable steps to ensure that intermediaries, who must comply with DCM membership rules, do not impose geographic restrictions that violate impartial access." New Jersey has met that layer in court too: a consent order of August 22, 2025 in Robinhood Derivatives, LLC v. Flaherty preliminarily enjoined the same state officials from enforcement against Robinhood "due to Robinhood's involvement in transactions of sports-related event contracts traded on KalshiEX LLC's designated contract market."

What the venues' own documents say about New Jersey

Kalshi's Member Agreement, as posted on November 6, 2026, lists foreign countries and sanctioned territories as Restricted Jurisdictions and names no U.S. state, and no notice changing it has been posted since October 1, 2026. That differs from the picture CoinDesk reported on November 6, 2026: Kalshi customers in states including Nevada, Washington and Michigan had been geofenced as the exchange works through its legal disputes there. New Jersey is not among the states the report names.

Polymarket's international site tells a visitor from the United States that trading is blocked on polymarket.com and points to Polymarket US, whose app terms, effective October 23, 2026, require a user to be "legally permitted to access a DCM" and name no state. These are each venue's own words about access; they are not a statement of what any person in New Jersey may lawfully do, and this story draws no conclusion on that.

What happens next

The release does not give a calendar date for its window. If the 30 days run from November 5, 2026, they end on December 5, 2026, when exchanges that restrict access by state are to have stopped or explained to the Division why they cannot; the Commission says it "will consider the facts and circumstances of any particular case in connection with potential Commission action." The interpretation itself takes effect when the Federal Register publishes it.

In New Jersey the next fixed date is the Supreme Court's: Kalshi's response to the state's petition in No. 26-299 is due December 7, 2026, and the district court case stays paused until the justices act. The legal pages linked above are next reviewed on November 20, 2026.