Crypto Exchanges

Story: Baltimore Sues Kalshi and Polymarket Over Illegal Sports Betting, Dragging Robinhood and…

By Jean-Luc Maracon

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Robinhood, Coinbase, and Webull Named as Partners. It's not just Kalshi and Polymarket in the crosshairs.

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CFTC vs. Maryland: A Jurisdictional Collision. The federal angle here is probably the most complicated part. The U.S.

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What's at Stake for the Industry. Kalshi and Polymarket built their businesses on a federal interpretation of their contracts.

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Baltimore just drew a hard line. The city filed lawsuits against prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket, accusing both of running unlicensed sports-betting operations…

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Mayor Brendan Scott put his name on the action, framing it as a fight against large companies that, per the city's argument, chose profits over community welfare.

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It's not just Kalshi and Polymarket in the crosshairs. Robinhood, Webull, and Coinbase all got named in the complaints as partners with Kalshi.

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None of the named companies have been shy about their federal-level arguments. Kalshi and Polymarket have both operated under the view that their products are federally regulated…

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The federal angle here is probably the most complicated part. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, led by Chair Michael Selig, has taken the position that event…

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So you've got a city saying: these are illegal bets. You've got a federal regulator saying: these are swaps, we handle this.

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It's murky. And it's probably going to get messier before it gets cleaner.

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Read also: Kalshi Feeds Live Order Book Data to DoubleZero Edge Across 37.7 Billion Dollar Prediction Market

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The lawsuits may eventually reach the Supreme Court. Both sides seem dug in, and the jurisdictional question — who actually has authority over prediction markets, states or the…

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The involvement of Robinhood, Webull, and Coinbase makes that scenario even harder to manage. These aren't small distribution partners. They have millions of users.

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It's also worth noting that prediction markets have grown fast. What started as niche tools for political forecasting expanded hard into sports and financial events, attracting…

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Related: Kalshi Chases $40 Billion Valuation as Wellington Eyes First-Ever Stake

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