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#state#kalshi#york#gambling#cftc#order#nationwide#gov#court#laws

Discussion (110 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews
I've got no love for Kalshi, but "orders Kalshi to continue operate in New York" doesn't seem to be present anywhere in the actual release.
The article presents the sequence of events as:
1. The State of NY files a lawsuit against Kalshi under the theory that it can be regulated by state gambling laws.
2. The State of NY files for a temporary restraining order requiring Kalshi to halt trading nationally, not just in NY.
3. Kalshi reaches out to the CFTC to claim that NY doesn't have the authority to regulate interstate commerce.
4. The CFTC agrees and uses their authority to override the TRO.
That seems pretty aligned with how interstate commerce is regulated and managed in the US.
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/governor-hochul-and-att...
My impression was that NY wanted a TRO to stop Kalshi operating in New York, not nationally. A TRO seems like a rather extreme measure in that it assumes the plaintiffs win the lawsuit as a premise, but I guess that's partly a function of how long New York has been trying and failing to obtain compliance with its gaming laws, and intended to provoke a preliminary hearing into the merits of the case (vs letting the litigation drag on for years without anyhting changing).
> 2. The State of NY files for a temporary restraining order requiring Kalshi to halt trading nationally, not just in NY.
The State of New York did *NOT* file a temporary restraining order, neither in NY or nationally. Please find a citation of that if you want to claim it is true.
Rather the State of New York filed suit here to stop operations in New York:
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/governor-hochul-and-att...
Specifically the lawsuit asks for:
"Permanently enjoining Respondent and its principals, agents, and employees from operating an unlawful gambling business, or otherwise advancing gambling activity, or profiting from gambling activity, within or from New York or to persons in New York, without being licensed by the New York State Gaming Commission"
It seems that overall the CFTC and the NYAG are presenting materially different event time lines, so as an outsider it's a bit unclear what is actually happening.
Since Kalshi's HQ is in NY, I guess the most charitable interpretation is that perhaps the CFTC's statement is based on the assumption granting the TRO would have the net effect of disrupting Kalshi's operations everywhere until they can serve the site from outside NY. Of course, without disclosing that extrapolation, the statement is still factually incorrect.
Setting aside that significant error, I suspect this CFTC order is an attempt to create a federal vs state conflict in the hope the judge will suspend or defer any TRO until that issue is decided. I imagine Kalshi will file a response tomorrow arguing exactly that. Ultimately, this will still come down to whether Kalshi can be regulated by states, and if so, whether it's gambling.
edit
Interesting, I found KalshiEX LLC v. Flaherty [1] which seems strikingly similar to this case and was ruled in favor of Kalshi.
"The Third Circuit affirmed the District Courtâs order. The appellate court held that the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) grants the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) exclusive jurisdiction over swaps, including sports-related event contracts traded on CFTC-licensed DCMs."
[1]: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca3/25...
> These are financial exchanges that offer financial instruments and operate across state lines. They match the bid from a resident of one state with the offer of a resident from another state and submit the trade to a clearinghouse that backstops the transactions of customers throughout the country. New York has no business regulating these interstate financial markets.
If true, it seems quite irrelevant that NY is limiting its suit to NY customers. NY would be restricting trade to people in other states. (I am not a fan or user of Kalshi)
Liquor laws come to mind, you usually need special distribution stuff per state.
It would be a wild expansion of the commerce clause to prevent states from regulating what can be sold inside the state.
> New York also prohibits sports wagering on events in which New York college teams participate
Ultimately, this suit is about protecting state gambling taxes and incumbent casinos. I guess I don't feel a particular love for either side.
> In the lawsuit, filed on July 31, New York seeks a temporary restraining order prohibiting KalshiEX, LLC from offering all event contracts nationwide and more than $36 billion in damages.
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/new-york...
This is the complaint.
If you go to page 29 you'll see what they requested.
The claim they are trying to prevent them from offering all event contracts nationwide is simply false. The closest anywhere is a claim to enjoin them from violating some federal criminal statutes that they would not be violating if they were not operating in new york illegally (IE do not stop them from operating nationwide).
You can also see their is no specific number on the damages. In fact, the only specific number is the request for Kalshi to pay $2000 in costs to the state of NY.
The CFTC is, understandably, relying on people not bothering to read it and so has put out an "alternate set of facts".
So yes, technically the restraining order is preventing Kalshi from offering Nationwide contracts.
By letter dated October 24, 2025, the Gaming Commission directed Kalshi to âcease and desist from illegally operating, advertising, promoting, administering, managing, or otherwise making available an unlicensed mobile sports wagering platform in New York State in connection with any sports event.â
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/kalshiex...
I'd love to see another state push for a state-specific restriction and see how that plays out.
HN in general gets ahead of its skis a ton on legal stuff, itâs not personal. I deserve what Iâll get for speaking plainly to you, I hope the fact Iâm speaking plainly and incurring cost will encourage you to move slightly more slowly.
In order:
Regulating interstate commerce is a fed thing, yes, that doesnât mean states are unable to do anything at all to companies operating in multiple states. It was jarring to hear that described as one of the most settled principles we have.
NYS was not asking for a national TRO. It was jarring to read that asserted.
The first paragraph of the CFTC release we are commenting on says it ordered Kalshi to be able operate nationally. It was jarring to read it was made up that the CFTC ordered it to be able to operate.
Market regulators do have this power.
If you read the complaint, the prayer for relief is quite clear that they only are trying to stop them from operating in new york, deliberately offering gambling to new yorkers, etc.
There is no relief requested nationwide.
The State of New York does not have the power to compel NYSE to stop operating in New York either, irrespective of what laws NY passed, as that is with the SEC.
They also canât enforce a law saying companies in New York must file 10Qs every month or something. Again, federal.
See: supremacy clause, interstate commerce. (The latter has been significantly expanded beyond its ordinary meaning for centuries; in here, the theory is that New Yorkers not being able to participate in a market âhurtsâ other interstate market participants).
Iâm not sure that interstate commerce should apply hereâit seems correct that a state can ban gambling, even if it is on the Internet against out-of-state US nationalsâbut if the CFTC is asserting its pre-emption under existing law, it needs to assert it (as it is doing so here.)
Itâs pretty clear that this is (a) gambling and (b) explicitly excluded from the CFTCâs legal mandate (âgamingâ), but obviously this is about corruption and not a good faith interpretation.
I expect this to go to the Supreme Court and for the Court to side with the corruption.
I am not sure about how the state regulation of betting will turn out (though I would have guessed that it is indeed pre-empted), but the nationwide injunction seems shaky given Trump v Casa: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a884_8n59.pdf
(Which is a bit over $15M at todayâs spot prices, by the by)
I actually am not opinionated on it other than all kinds of gambling are basically the same -- and that includes a lot of the ways stock market is used in practice.
I do admit gambling addiction is a real thing and that this new super convenient and easy and legal option incrementally brings more people into that world of pain. But I also think it's stupid to ban gambling like they did with alcohol in the last century. It'll just put more control in the hands of the mob.
The mob. There's an organization that I bet is also eagerly lining the pockets of these "kill Kalshi" regulators.
Betting on the superbowl winner is none of that.
Totally completely wrong.
> In the lawsuit, filed on July 31, New York seeks a temporary restraining order prohibiting KalshiEX, LLC from offering all event contracts nationwide and more than $36 billion in damages.
This seems naturally the territory of the CFTC. They have exclusive right to regulate futures and derivatives contracts, which Congress handed them. Also, it seems straightforwardly anti-commerce-clause to allow NY to prohibit Kalshi from offering these contracts nationwide.
Ah yes, "derivatives" which are "not intended to fall under gaming laws" such as... *checks Kalshi website* 58 million dollars riding on which team is the 2027 NFL champion.
Oh yeah, totally a financial derivative there, not related to gambling at all. *sigh*
1. When you "lose" shorting a stock your potential loss is infinite, because you might be on the hook to buy (and then give away) GOOG at an arbitrarily high price. In contrast, the super-bowl bet is probably a fixed amount.
2. In the opposite direction, it's hard to see how the Super Bowl bet can really be hedging to reduce how much you're relying on chance in your life... not unless you happen to own a store selling single-team merchandise and you want to limit how much money you might lose if nobody wants to buy it.
There's no equivalent instrument for sports.
The thing that I suspect you're intending to describe, a put option expiring in January 2028 (there is no such contract for February) with a break-even at $300, has a different structure which greatly increases its utility for financial purposes and greatly decreases its appeal for gambling. It's hard for a casual bettor to even identify what the correct product is (it was the $355 strike at close of market today, but it may be different tomorrow!), bets are only accepted in increments of $5,500, and your winnings may be minimal unless Google falls either more quickly or more severely. If I'm trying to hedge my Google exposure, though, I'm perfectly happy with the scenario where I didn't win much because Google didn't go down much.
Issuer I'm seeing is Sectigo Public Server Authentication CA OV R36.
Avast is nominally an AV/VPN company; are you running their tooling on your machine?
Qualys Results [2] for www.cftc.gov Cloudflare in front of Drupal 11
[1] - https://nochan.net/b/Text-Crap/function_fingerprint2.sh
[2] - https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.cftc.gov&...
President Donald J. Trump nominated Michael S. Selig to serve as the 16th Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on October 27, 2025. The U.S. Senate confirmed him on December 18, 2025, and he was sworn into office on December 22, 2025.
This is the time for crypto projects to enjoy Federal protection.
the âstates rightsâ crowd has always used laws passed by Congress, which the CEA has been. other examples such as a Supreme Court overruling itself made a national regulation fall back to the states solely because Congress has not and has never passed a law on the topic, there is insufficient consensus on proposed laws so those topics will remain at the states
in this case, the actual argument is that the case should be heard by the courts at all, and NY wanted to halt operations WHILE it was heard by the courts. CFTC overruled the pre-verdict halting
and finally, the courts of course will likely not result in anything, as the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution is clear that federal law is supreme when there is a conflict, and the CFTC chooses to leverage that
federal government can always choose to ignore a state law, as it does in some markets
The fact that they don't act like it and just allow the executive to do whatever it wants doesn't absolve them of responsibility for what the executive does.
That's not to say I think event prediction markets are good. In fact, I think they should be banned. That doesn't change my analysis of the current situation.
That is a wild take. Interstate regulatory power does not prevent a state from passing laws regulating things happening inside its own state.