Is Kalshi Legal in New York? Fully Available While the State Sues

Open the Kalshi app anywhere in New York today and the full platform is there — sports, election, and economic event contracts, no geofence, no court order blocking access. That availability is not legal peace. Kalshi is operating in defiance of an October 2025 cease-and-desist from the State Gaming Commission, New York is pressing an enforcement case whose demand the CFTC describes as more than $36 billion in damages, and four separate court proceedings are live at once. Kalshi keeps serving New Yorkers because no court has yet ordered it to stop, and because an August 11 CFTC emergency order directs it to keep operating. Multiple motions are pending. The initial pretrial conference in the federal government’s suit is set for August 31, and that court has also set a September 14 hearing on the federal preliminary-injunction motion. The AG’s remand motion is still pending — New York replied August 28 — as of August 31, 2026.

What happened in New York

• October 24, 2025 — The Gaming Commission sends Kalshi a cease-and-desist letter demanding it stop what the Commission describes as unlicensed mobile sports wagering. Sports contracts only.
• October 27, 2025 — Kalshi sues Commission officials in Manhattan federal court to block enforcement; the case lands before Judge Analisa Torres.
• April 24, 2026 — The United States and the CFTC jointly sue New York State, asking a federal judge to bar state enforcement against CFTC-regulated event contracts.
• July 7, 2026 — Judge Torres denies Kalshi’s preliminary injunction, holding the Commodity Exchange Act does not preempt New York’s gambling laws. Kalshi appeals to the Second Circuit the next day.
• July 14, 2026 — The CFTC issues its first emergency order, staying a Kalshi rule change and ordering pending trades fulfilled. It grew out of the Michigan fight, not New York — but previewed what came next.
• July 27, 2026 — Judge Torres denies Kalshi an injunction pending appeal, leaving New York free to enforce while the appeal proceeds.
• July 30–31, 2026 — The US and CFTC file an emergency motion to restrain New York; a judge denies it from the bench, without prejudice. The same day, Attorney General Letitia James sues KalshiEX LLC, accusing it of running an illegal gambling operation and seeking disgorgement, restitution, and treble fines. Kalshi removes the case to federal court within hours.
• August 7, 2026 — The AG moves to send the case back to state court; the motion is pending.
• August 11, 2026 — The CFTC invokes its emergency authority a second time, ordering Kalshi to continue operating, citing New York’s demand for a nationwide halt.
• Week of August 14, 2026 — That order ricochets through the dockets: Kalshi cites it at the Second Circuit as proof of a federal-state conflict; the AG answers that the CFTC cannot manufacture preemption by decree.

We follow every filing in our New York v. Kalshi case file.

What you can trade in New York right now

No court has ordered Kalshi to stop serving New York — and no court has said it may keep going.

• Kalshi sports contracts: available as of August 31, 2026. These are what the cease-and-desist covers; Kalshi has not complied, and no court has granted the halt the state wants.
• Kalshi election contracts: available as of August 31, 2026. New York’s actions center on sports wagering statutes; none specifically targets election markets.
• Kalshi economics, weather, and culture contracts: available as of August 31, 2026. Nothing in the New York enforcement documents touches them.

One precision that matters: the CFTC’s order is an agency instruction, not a court ruling that Kalshi may stay. Every court asked has declined to grant Kalshi or the CFTC that protection.

What about Polymarket and Robinhood?

Both appear available to New Yorkers — New York is absent from Polymarket’s published restriction lists and from Robinhood’s restrictions page, both checked August 20, 2026 — and neither has faced a public New York enforcement action.

Polymarket’s relaunched US platform, operating through its own CFTC-designated exchange, serves New York. No cease-and-desist to Polymarket has surfaced, and the AG’s suit names only KalshiEX LLC (full breakdown: our Polymarket review).

Robinhood offers event contracts to New Yorkers, sports included. Its support page lists restrictions only for Maryland and Nevada, and it routes contracts through three outside exchanges — one of them Kalshi’s, so an order against Kalshi could reach contracts sold through Robinhood (see our Robinhood event contracts review).

Why New York is fighting

Sports betting is already legal in New York — retail since 2019, mobile since January 2022 — and New York is the largest US sports betting market. Its licensed mobile operators pay a 51% tax on gross gaming revenue, producing roughly a billion dollars a year for education. Kalshi holds no New York license and pays no New York gaming tax while listing markets on the same games. The AG’s press release ties the suit explicitly to protecting that licensed, taxed system.

The legal question underneath is the one being fought nationwide: the Commodity Exchange Act gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over swaps on federally designated exchanges, and Kalshi argues its event contracts are swaps — so only the CFTC can regulate them. New York argues that a contract paying out on a Knicks game is a sports bet under state law, whatever the paperwork calls it. Judge Torres has so far read the statute the state’s way. Our 50-state tracker walks through the doctrine; our explainer on whether prediction markets are gambling or investing covers the swap-or-bet question in depth.

What could change next

Two dates land on August 31: the initial pretrial conference in the federal government’s suit against New York (11:00 a.m., Schofield, Courtroom 1106 — no minute order yet on the public docket), and Kalshi’s opening brief and appendix at the Second Circuit, due August 31 under an August 5 SO-ORDERED schedule (No. 26-1835, Dkt. 37). As of the morning of August 31 the brief had not appeared on the public docket. The AG’s remand motion is pending with no announced hearing date.

Kalshi is also asking the Second Circuit for an injunction pending appeal, leaning heavily on the CFTC’s emergency order. That argument took a hit elsewhere: over the August 15 weekend, a federal judge in Connecticut called Kalshi’s reliance on the order “not compelling” . And on September 11, a Manhattan federal judge hears the injunction bid of Novig, a newer sports prediction market suing New York over the same statutes.

The honest scoreboard: every court test in New York has gone against the federal side — Kalshi lost twice before Judge Torres, and the US and CFTC lost their emergency bid. If New York eventually wins an injunction, a court order to stop would collide head-on with a federal agency’s order to continue.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get in trouble for trading on Kalshi in New York?

Every public New York enforcement action targets the platform, not its customers: the cease-and-desist went to Kalshi, and the AG’s suit names only KalshiEX LLC. We are not aware of any state action against an individual for trading on Kalshi as of August 31, 2026 — that describes the record, not the future. Federal rules against manipulation and insider trading still apply to traders on any CFTC-regulated exchange.

Is Polymarket legal in New York?

Polymarket is available to New Yorkers as of August 31, 2026, and faces no public New York enforcement action — no cease-and-desist, no place in the AG’s suit. The question New York is pressing against Kalshi — whether event contracts are gambling under state law — could apply to Polymarket just as readily; the state has not moved against it. See Kalshi vs. Polymarket for how the platforms compare.

Is sports betting legal in New York?

Yes — licensed mobile sports betting has operated since January 2022 under the Gaming Commission, taxed at 51% of gross gaming revenue. That is precisely why the state is suing: New York argues Kalshi offers the same product without the license or the tax.

Part of our 50-state Kalshi legality tracker — see every state. Last verified August 31, 2026.