Utah Attorney General Derek Brown filed 13 felony charges and one misdemeanor against Kalshi, CEO Tarek Mansour, and COO Luana Lopes Lara on Wednesday for violating state gambling laws. The charges stem from sports bets offered on Kalshi between September 13 and September 24. Mansour and Lopes Lara received summons rather than arrest warrants to respond in Third District Court in Salt Lake County.
The charges come as the Trump administration's Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Utah to block enforcement of its gambling ban against CFTC-registered prediction markets. This marks the 10th state sued by the CFTC on this issue. Utah is also pursuing a separate civil lawsuit against Kalshi filed last week seeking an injunction against sports, election, and political bets on the platform.
"Kalshi runs an online casino in Utah and calls it a prediction market. That violates Utah law," Brown said. "Not only do our state laws ban gambling but Utah is one of only two states where gambling is also prohibited under the state constitution."
Kalshi disputes the charges and vowed to fight them in court, referencing its successful legal defense against similar charges in Arizona in May. "This is a crazy overreach; Utah is clearly playing politics. We look forward to putting a stop to this in court, just like we did in Arizona," the company said.
US District Judge Robert Shelby previously ruled in August that federal law does not preempt Utah's anti-gambling enforcement. Kalshi is appealing to the Tenth Circuit but failed to obtain an injunction blocking the state ban while litigation continues.
The CFTC argues that prediction markets serve hedging and investment purposes beyond gambling. The core legal dispute centers on whether event contracts qualify as swaps under federal authority or fall under state gambling jurisdiction. Circuit courts are divided on the issue, with the Third Circuit ruling New Jersey cannot regulate prediction market sports bets, while the Sixth and Ninth Circuits sided with Ohio, Tennessee, and Nevada in similar cases. The split has prompted New Jersey to petition the Supreme Court, joined by 39 states and the District of Columbia.