Judge bars Kalshi sports contracts on two California tribal lands

A federal judge in California has temporarily barred Kalshi from offering sports-event contracts on the Indian lands of Blue Lake Rancheria and Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians. The Nov. 4 preliminary injunction applies to Kalshi Inc. and KalshiEX LLC while the tribes’ lawsuit proceeds, but does not restrict the prediction-market operator elsewhere in California or nationally.

The order covers contracts involving a broad range of sports, including football, basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, golf, hockey, boxing, wrestling, motorsports, pickleball, chess, esports and Ultimate Fighting Championship events. It does not expressly impose the same restrictions on Robinhood, which is also a defendant in the underlying case.

InGame reported that the order was the first injunction to prohibit Kalshi sports contracts on tribal lands. The short order did not set out Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley’s reasoning, but it followed the Ninth Circuit’s Sept. 16 ruling that the tribes were likely to succeed on their Indian Gaming Regulatory Act claim.

As we reported in September, the appeals court held that the contracts amounted to Class III gaming when customers entered them from tribal territory, and returned the case to the district court to assess the remaining requirements for preliminary relief. The panel also concluded that the Commodity Exchange Act’s exclusive-jurisdiction provision did not extend to the challenged sports contracts, rejecting Kalshi’s central pre-emption argument at this stage.

The two tribes sued in July 2025, contending that the binary contracts, which pay out when a selected sports-event winner prevails, were unauthorized gaming under tribal ordinances and federal law. Kalshi has maintained that its event contracts are federally regulated derivatives and that Commodity Futures Trading Commission authority supersedes conflicting gaming restrictions.

The injunction puts particular focus on Kalshi’s location controls. Kalshi said it had voluntarily geofenced the tribes’ lands in September, but a Blue Lake Rancheria Gaming Commission member subsequently placed a bet using the Kalshi app while on Blue Lake land, according to a joint status report described by InGame. The tribes then sought access to GeoComply and a court-supervised means of independently testing the geofencing.

Reporting on the order differed over its map requirement. Crypto.news said the tribes must supply Kalshi with boundary maps by Nov. 13, while InGame said Kalshi must provide the court maps of areas it is geofencing by that date. Both accounts said Kalshi must submit a compliance report by Nov. 25.

The order is docketed as document 106 in Blue Lake Rancheria v. Kalshi Inc., case No. 3:25-cv-06162 in the Northern District of California.