Alabama-Quassarte denies Kalshi tie after being named as tribal partner

The Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town has denied any partnership with Kalshi, contradicting an Oct. 7 announcement that included the Oklahoma tribe among four tribal entities planning prediction-market applications using the company’s exchange infrastructure.

Chief Samuel Marshall Jr. said the tribe, its governing committee, legal leadership and representatives had neither entered an agreement nor signed a contract with Kalshi or any other prediction-market app operator. The tribal administration also said it opposed prediction markets, arguing that they undermine the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and Oklahoma tribal-state gaming compacts.

As we reported Oct. 7, Alabama-Quassarte had been named alongside three California tribal entities in plans for Kalshi-powered apps. The new denial leaves the status of the proposed Alabama-Quassarte venture unclear.

The dispute comes as Kalshi has sought partnerships with tribal governments that can develop customer-facing, tribally branded apps while accessing its markets. The company has said it was working with five tribes and intended to add partnerships. Its arrangements with three California tribes would provide access to contracts on subjects including presidential elections and movie ratings, with revenue shared between Kalshi and the tribes.

The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana has launched a Kalshi-backed app, while Greenville Rancheria, the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation’s economic development arm and Alturas Indian Rancheria have been identified as California partners. CDC Gaming reported that only Alturas among the California tribes discussed operates a casino. Tribes working with Kalshi have presented prediction markets as a prospective source of digital revenue, particularly for communities without casinos.

Opponents say the agreements raise regulatory and sovereignty concerns. The Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association, which represents 25 tribes, said only a handful of the 575 federally recognized tribes had signed Kalshi-related contracts and none was among its members. The group said sports prediction-market apps permit illegal Class III gaming and threaten compact-based revenue used for tribal government services.

Alabama-Quassarte’s administration characterized the activity differently, describing it as illegal Class II gaming. Oklahoma tribes with state compacts pay monthly fees for exclusive rights to specified Class III electronic and table games; those payments produced more than $221 million in Oklahoma’s 2025 budget year.

Kalshi chief executive Tarek Mansour has argued that tribal gaming and prediction markets are different products serving distinct economic activity, and need not displace one another. A company spokeswoman, Jacki McGavick, said prediction markets fall under exclusive federal jurisdiction and that Kalshi is willing to engage constructively with lawmakers.

The clash sits within an unresolved legal contest over whether the Commodity Exchange Act displaces the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Kalshi says its federally regulated market status, off-reservation servers and personnel mean online access from reservations is not business on Indian lands. A Ninth Circuit ruling last month, however, found tribes were likely to succeed on claims that Kalshi’s sports betting violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act on tribal lands after a district court had declined an injunction.

Tribal gaming generated $43.9 billion in revenue in 2024, according to Brookings, and supports essential community services. Kalshi has Commodity Futures Trading Commission approval as a designated contract market, including for sports-based event contracts, but neither Congress nor the courts had halted its activities as of the Brookings assessment.