Is Kalshi Legal in New Jersey? Fully Available Under a Court Win the State May Take to the Supreme Court

A New Jersey resident can trade the full Kalshi slate today — sports event contracts, election markets, economics and weather included. Not because the fight is over, but because Kalshi has won every round so far. A federal preliminary injunction, in force since April 28, 2025 and never stayed, bars New Jersey from civil or criminal enforcement against Kalshi’s sports contracts while the case proceeds, and the Third Circuit affirmed that injunction 2-1 on April 6, 2026. The state’s one remaining move is a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court — Justice Alito has extended its filing deadline to September 3, and no petition was on file as of August 31, 2026.

The full record, dated and sourced:

What happened in New Jersey

• March 27, 2025. The Division of Gaming Enforcement sent cease-and-desist letters to Kalshi and Robinhood, citing the state’s Sports Wagering Act and its constitutional ban on collegiate wagering, demanding they stop all sports wagering to New Jersey residents — and void wagers already placed — by 11:59 pm the next day.
• March 29, 2025. Rather than comply, Kalshi sued the state’s gaming officials in federal court (KalshiEX, LLC v. Flaherty).
• April 28, 2025. Judge Edward Kiel granted a preliminary injunction barring civil or criminal enforcement against Kalshi’s sports-related event contracts, on a $100,000 bond.
• May 8, 2025. The state appealed; the district case has been stayed since May 21, 2025.
• April 6, 2026. After argument in September 2025, the Third Circuit affirmed, 2-1: sports event contracts are likely swaps within the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction, and federal law likely preempts New Jersey’s sports-wagering statutes as applied — the first federal appellate ruling on the question.
• June 26 – July 24, 2026. New Jersey twice asked Justice Alito for more time to seek Supreme Court review; he granted both, moving the deadline from July 5 to September 3, 2026. As of August 31, 2026: extension applications on file, no petition.

Kalshi never pulled its sports markets from New Jersey: the state ordered them shut in March 2025, and the court protection that followed has never lapsed.

What you can trade in New Jersey right now

• Sports event contracts — available as of August 31, 2026. Kalshi never pulled them: the April 2025 injunction has shielded them from state enforcement since. No geofence, no restriction — but the protection is a live court order at the preliminary stage, not a final ruling.
• Election markets — available as of August 31, 2026. New Jersey’s 2025 order demanded a stop to sports wagering only; the state has never moved against Kalshi’s election contracts.
• Economics, weather, and everything else — available as of August 31, 2026. These markets were never within the scope of the state’s action.

What about Polymarket and Robinhood?

Robinhood took the opposite road and landed in the same place. It received its own cease-and-desist on March 27, 2025 and complied, pulling sports contracts from New Jersey for about five months. On August 19, 2025 it switched them back on and sued the same officials; a consent order three days later gave it preliminary relief pending Kalshi’s appeal, and a May 5, 2026 order extended it after the Third Circuit ruled. Robinhood’s latest quarterly filing confirms the arrangement — and discloses a separate state attorney general investigation touching its event-contract offerings. Net: Robinhood’s sports contracts — which route to CFTC-regulated exchanges, Kalshi’s among them — are available in New Jersey as of August 31, 2026, and its restrictions page lists no New Jersey limit; details in our Robinhood event contracts review.

Polymarket is the asterisk. It re-entered the US legally — buying the CFTC-licensed exchange QCX for $112 million in July 2025, winning CFTC approval that September, and resuming US operations at the end of 2025 — but it has no formal footing in the New Jersey fight: no 2025 letter, no state enforcement action we could find, no party status in either lawsuit, so neither Kalshi’s injunction nor Robinhood’s consent order covers it. The caveat: we could not confirm from a primary source whether its US platform serves New Jersey residents as of August 31, 2026 — Polymarket publishes no state-availability list we could verify. More in our Polymarket review.

Why New Jersey is fighting

Not hostility to betting: New Jersey won Murphy v. NCAA, the Supreme Court case that struck down the federal sports-betting ban, and has run legal wagering ever since. The objection is structural. Licensed New Jersey sportsbooks pay state taxes and follow state rules — including a constitutional ban on wagering on New Jersey college teams — while Kalshi’s federally regulated markets sit outside that system entirely, college markets included.

Atlantic City is squarely behind the state: the Casino Association of New Jersey filed as amicus at both court levels, alongside the American Gaming Association and 34 states. New Jersey’s Supreme Court filing argues the Third Circuit’s ruling would “federalize a multibillion-dollar-a-year sports-wagering industry.” The state is also hedging: a pending bill would tax prediction markets at 14.75% of gross gaming revenue, plus 2.5% to the Casino Revenue Fund. For the swap-or-bet doctrine underneath every one of these cases, see our 50-state tracker.

What could change next

One date controls: September 3, 2026 — New Jersey’s deadline to file its petition for Supreme Court review. The state has committed to nothing: its second extension application said it was still deciding whether to file and wanted to see imminent rulings from the Fourth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, and Massachusetts’ highest court first. Whether it files is unknowable until it does.

Keep two things straight in the meantime. Everything protecting Kalshi here is preliminary — a forecast of the likely winner, not a final judgment; no court has reached the merits. And the Third Circuit’s reading governs this case, not the country — the same fight is live elsewhere, starting with New York v. Kalshi and our New York state page. After the Supreme Court chapter ends, the case returns to the district court, frozen since May 2025 — per the June 2026 status report, the parties report back within 21 days of a cert denial or the end of Supreme Court proceedings.

Frequently asked questions

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

Every public enforcement action in New Jersey has targeted platforms, not traders — the 2025 letters went to Kalshi and Robinhood, and the lawsuits run between those companies and state officials. While the injunction stands, the state is barred from enforcing against Kalshi’s sports contracts. One nuance: the 2025 order also demanded that already-placed wagers be voided — user positions were in its sights even if users were not. That is the record, not a guarantee about the future. Either way, winnings are taxable — see our prediction-market tax guide.

Is Polymarket legal in New Jersey?

Polymarket runs its US platform on its own CFTC-licensed exchange, and we found no New Jersey enforcement action against it — no cease-and-desist, no emergency order, no lawsuit. But no court order protects it here either, and we could not confirm from a primary source whether it serves New Jersey residents as of August 31, 2026. For a side-by-side, see Kalshi vs. Polymarket.

Are Robinhood’s sports event contracts available in New Jersey?

Yes — as of August 31, 2026, under a consent order in Robinhood’s own federal case, extended most recently on May 5, 2026, after roughly five months offline in 2025.

Does the Third Circuit ruling settle this for good?

No. It affirmed a preliminary injunction — an early ruling about who is likely to win, and the word “likely” does real work in the opinion. No court has issued a final merits decision in the New Jersey case, and the Supreme Court may yet be asked to review it.

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