California Tribes Win Injunction Against Kalshi Sports Markets

A federal judge in California has granted Native American tribes a preliminary injunction preventing Kalshi from offering sports event contracts on their lands.

US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley issued the order on November 4 in the Northern District of California in litigation involving Blue Lake Rancheria and Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians. Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians later joined the case.

The restriction applies only to the plaintiff tribes’ Indian lands and does not amount to a statewide ban in California.

As reported by The Defiant, citing The Norhern District of California Order (pdf), Kalshi Inc. and KalshiEX are barred from offering “any sports contracts” on those lands, including contracts that “facially involve, relate to, or reference” football, basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, boxing, hockey, esports, motorsports and UFC events.

The tribes must provide Kalshi with boundary maps by November 13. Kalshi then has 21 days from the order to tell the court what steps it has taken to comply.

Ninth Circuit Ruling Set Up the Injunction

The decision follows a September 16 ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that the tribes were likely to succeed on their claims under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

Corley had denied preliminary relief in November 2025. The appeals court later reversed that part of the decision and returned the case for consideration of the remaining injunction factors.

The Ninth Circuit treated Kalshi’s sports event contracts as Class III gaming under IGRA when customers enter those contracts while physically located on tribal lands.

Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote:

“Kalshi may reshuffle the cards, but it cannot change the hand: Its sports event contracts are class III gaming,”

The panel also rejected Kalshi’s argument that the relevant activity occurred only where its exchange infrastructure or servers were located. It found that a customer purchasing a contract from tribal land was participating in gaming there.

The court further held that the Commodity Exchange Act’s grant of exclusive jurisdiction to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission did not displace IGRA. The Ninth Circuit did, however, uphold the rejection of the tribes’ separate Lanham Act claim.

Court Order Replaces Voluntary Restrictions

Before Corley issued the injunction, Kalshi said it had worked with GeoComply to block sports trading from the tribes’ lands and argued that an injunction was unnecessary.

The tribes challenged the effectiveness of those measures. In an October 14 status report, they said a member of the Blue Lake Rancheria Gaming Commission had completed a trade from tribal land despite the geolocation restrictions.

Kalshi said it was investigating that reported transaction with GeoComply.

The new order makes the restriction enforceable by the court. It does not require Kalshi to use a specific geolocation system.

Gaming attorney Daniel Wallach described the ruling as the first preliminary injunction secured by Native American tribes against Kalshi.

Other tribal cases have produced different outcomes. In Wisconsin, the Ho-Chunk Nation was allowed to continue its IGRA lawsuit against Kalshi, but a federal judge denied preliminary relief after finding insufficient evidence of irreparable harm. That case is now subject to appellate review in the Seventh Circuit.

Four tribes in New Mexico have also sued Kalshi and are seeking an injunction over sports contracts offered on their lands.

Broader Prediction Market Fight Continues

The California case forms part of a wider legal dispute over sports event contracts, although the legal basis differs from many state enforcement cases.

State regulators have argued that Kalshi’s products fall within gambling laws, while Kalshi has relied on federal commodities law and CFTC jurisdiction.

Courts have reached different conclusions. The Third Circuit sided with Kalshi in litigation involving New Jersey, while the Ninth Circuit rejected its request for preliminary protection in Nevada.

The Second Circuit has also declined to grant interim protection in Kalshi’s New York and Connecticut appeals. Those cases remain pending on their merits.

Several petitions involving prediction market regulation have reached the US Supreme Court, but the justices had not agreed to hear them in the supplied material.

The California injunction is narrower because it addresses gaming on the plaintiff tribes’ lands under IGRA. For those tribes, Kalshi must now prevent sports contracts from being offered there while the underlying lawsuit continues.