Meta description: Missouri AG letters dated Sept. 16 and 17 give Kalshi, Polymarket and four rivals 30 days to stop sports contracts or get licensed.
Tags: Kalshi, Polymarket, Missouri Attorney General, Missouri Gaming Commission, CFTC, Robinhood
Market platform: none-if-cross-platform
Category: Regulation
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has demanded that six prediction-market and trading platforms stop offering sports event contracts to Missouri users unless they obtain a Missouri Gaming Commission license. The cease-and-desist letters were dated September 16 and September 17, 2026, and announced September 18, giving the companies 30 days from the letter dates to comply.
The recipients are Kalshi, Polymarket, Crypto.com, Novig, Underdog and Robinhood. Hanaway’s office says their sports event contracts amount to unlicensed sports wagering under Missouri law. The demand puts Missouri into the growing state-by-state fight over whether federally regulated event contracts can coexist with state sports-betting regimes.
What did Missouri order Kalshi and the other companies to do?
The Attorney General’s office gave each company two choices: bring its sports products into compliance with Missouri law or stop offering them to people located in the state. Compliance, as described by the office, means obtaining a Missouri Gaming Commission license, paying applicable state taxes and fees, and preventing users under 21 from placing wagers.
The letter to Kalshi states: “Missouri expects all online sports wagering platforms to comply with Missouri’s sports betting laws, and Kalshi is no exception.” It adds that “while Missouri remains open to possible legislative reforms in the future, the only immediate solutions available to Kalshi are to bring its operations into compliance with Missouri law or to stop offering its online sports wagering platform to individuals located in the State of Missouri.”
Hanaway framed the action around the state’s view that event-contract labels do not change the substance of the products. “Companies cannot repackage sports bets as ‘event contracts’ to avoid Missouri law,” she said in the Attorney General’s September 18 announcement.
The deadlines depend on the date of each letter. Companies that received letters dated September 16 face an October 16, 2026, deadline. Companies that received letters dated September 17 face an October 17, 2026, deadline.
What legal argument is Missouri making?
Missouri’s core argument is that federal commodities law does not preempt the state’s gambling rules. The Attorney General’s office says sports event contracts are not “swaps” under the Commodity Exchange Act, the federal statute that gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission exclusive jurisdiction over certain derivatives markets.
That point is the center of the legal fight. Kalshi and other federally regulated event-contract venues have argued in other disputes that their contracts fall under federal commodities law, not state gambling law. Missouri is taking the opposite position: if a product functions as sports wagering for Missouri users, the state says it must be licensed and taxed under Missouri’s sports-betting framework.
The issue has already divided federal courts outside Missouri. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in a Hannah Wyman report distributed by Tribune News Service, described a split between the 3rd Circuit and the 9th Circuit. The 3rd Circuit sided with Kalshi in April, treating its contracts as federal swaps, while the 9th Circuit ruled in August that states can regulate the products as sports betting under state law. Missouri is in the 8th Circuit, which has not been the source of those two rulings.
A cease-and-desist letter is not a court judgment. It is an enforcement demand from a state attorney general. If Missouri sues, or if any recipient files first to challenge the demand, the dispute could put the preemption question before a federal court covering Missouri.
Why is Missouri focused on age checks and taxes?
Missouri voters approved Amendment 2 in 2024, creating a regulated sports wagering market overseen by the Missouri Gaming Commission. According to the Attorney General’s announcement, licensed sports betting began in the state on December 1, 2025. The framework requires age verification so that no one under 21 can place a wager, and Missouri taxes sports betting gross receipts at 10%.
Hanaway’s office says the platforms’ sports event contracts are being offered outside that system. The state argues that the products avoid the licensing, age-gating and tax obligations imposed on registered sports-betting operators. In the state’s view, that creates both a consumer-protection issue and an uneven competitive field.
The tax issue is central to the dispute. Licensed Missouri sportsbooks pay 10% on gross receipts. Federally registered event-contract venues operate under a CFTC framework that does not include the same state sports-wagering levy. That difference has made prediction-market sports contracts a flashpoint in states that have already built regulated sports-betting markets.
How do the six recipients differ?
The six companies named by Missouri do not all come from the same part of the market. Kalshi and Polymarket are prediction-market exchanges. Crypto.com and Robinhood are broader financial platforms that have expanded into event contracts. Underdog is known for fantasy and sports-gaming products, while Novig has operated in sports prediction and betting-adjacent markets.
Missouri’s letters treat the product category, not the company’s core business model, as the regulated activity. That is significant because the same legal theory reaches federally registered exchanges, crypto-linked financial platforms and sports-focused operators. The state is not only challenging one company’s structure. It is challenging the availability of sports event contracts to Missouri users without a state gaming license.
How does Missouri fit into the national fight over event contracts?
Missouri is joining a broader state and federal fight over who controls sports event contracts. State regulators have argued that sports contracts look like sports betting and should be subject to state licensing, age limits and wagering taxes. Platforms that list the products have argued that federally regulated event contracts belong under the CFTC’s jurisdiction.
The fight matters because prediction-market operators and sportsbooks are now competing around the same underlying events. A contract on whether a team will win a game can resemble a sportsbook market from a consumer’s perspective, even if the legal structure is different. States that legalized sports betting have a direct interest in whether those products can be offered outside their licensing systems.
Missouri’s approach is notable because it names six companies at once and points them toward the same regulator, the Missouri Gaming Commission. Rather than focusing on one exchange or one product, the Attorney General’s office is asserting a statewide rule: sports-related event contracts offered to Missouri users must either fit inside Missouri’s licensed wagering system or leave the state.
What happens next?
The next milestone is the compliance deadline in each letter. Recipients with September 16 letters have until October 16, 2026. Recipients with September 17 letters have until October 17, 2026. By those dates, each company must obtain Missouri Gaming Commission licensing for covered sports products, stop offering those products to Missouri-located users, or face the risk of state enforcement.
The practical stakes are immediate for both sides. Missouri is testing whether its new sports-betting framework can reach event-contract platforms. The companies must decide whether to accept state gaming regulation, block Missouri users, or turn the Attorney General’s demand into the next federal court test of sports event contracts.
