Kalshi gives $50,000 to PAC backing Blackburn after Tennessee court loss

Kalshi, the New York-based prediction-market company, gave $50,000 to Team Tennessee, a political action committee supporting Republican gubernatorial nominee Marsha Blackburn, according to Tennessee campaign-finance records. The contribution was made amid Kalshi’s dispute with the state over whether its sports-event contracts are subject to Tennessee gambling regulation.

The donation was permissible because Tennessee allows companies to give unlimited amounts to political action committees. Direct donations to gubernatorial candidates, by contrast, were capped at $15,400 in this election. There was no evidence that the contribution influenced Blackburn’s position on Kalshi, which recently led a Washington hearing on consumer protections in prediction markets.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September that Tennessee and Ohio could enforce their gambling laws against Kalshi. A unanimous three-judge panel rejected the company’s argument that its sports-event contracts were financial swaps under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s exclusive jurisdiction, finding Kalshi had not shown that the contracts met the statutory definition of a swap.

Tennessee regulators had treated Kalshi as an unlicensed sports-betting operation because it was not registered with the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council. The ruling came after Tennessee and 43 other states wrote to the CFTC in July arguing that the agency lacked authority over sports-related event contracts.

The dispute is part of a wider judicial divide. The Sixth and Ninth Circuits backed the states’ position, while the Third Circuit sided with Kalshi in April. Legal experts said the conflict among lower courts could prompt Supreme Court review, although it was unclear whether Kalshi planned to appeal the Tennessee case.

Brenden Glavin of OpenSecrets said out-of-state corporate political contributions often reflect commercial interests, and that donations may be a modest cost compared with potential savings from avoiding state taxes and licensing fees. Kalshi did not respond to requests for comment from WATE or WKRN News 2 by publication time.