Kalshi asks federal judge to block Missouri from enforcing gambling laws against it

Kalshi has asked a federal judge in St. Louis for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to stop Missouri officials from enforcing the state’s gambling and sports wagering laws against its exchange. The motion, filed November 6, 2026, asks for a hearing within 14 days, according to the docket in KalshiEX LLC v. Hanaway, No. 4:26-cv-1860, before Judge Maria A. Lanahan in the Eastern District of Missouri.

Kalshi filed the suit on October 27 against Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, the Missouri Gaming Commission, its executive director and its commissioners. It is one of several companies now suing the state over the same enforcement threat.

How the dispute got here

The complaint says Hanaway sent KalshiEX a cease-and-desist letter on September 16 that called it an unlicensed online sports wagering platform. The letter demanded that it stop or get a Gaming Commission license, pay state taxes and fees, and stop serving people under 21, with about 30 days to comply. Kalshi says the attorney general’s office extended that deadline to October 30, and that on October 27 Missouri’s solicitor general said the state could not agree to hold off on enforcement.

Missouri law carries Class E felony penalties for promoting gambling and administrative fines of $50,000 per violation, the complaint says.

Kalshi’s argument

Kalshi argues that the Commodity Exchange Act gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts traded on a designated exchange, so the Supremacy Clause bars Missouri from regulating them. It says a Missouri license is not realistically available, because the state’s two direct mobile licenses have gone to Circa Sports and DraftKings and the other license types are reserved for casinos, pro teams and their partners. Kalshi also says that pulling out of Missouri could put it at odds with the CFTC’s impartial access rule. It asks the court to declare the Missouri laws preempted as applied to its exchange and to bar their enforcement.

What happens next

On November 5 the state’s lawyers filed notice of a motion to consolidate Kalshi’s case with Ludlow Exchange’s earlier suit against Hanaway, No. 4:26-cv-01780. The judge held a five-minute status conference on November 9, and Kalshi’s side is due to file a status report. As of November 10, the docket shows no ruling on the restraining order request.

Kalshi is not alone. Robinhood and Polymarket US sued Missouri officials on November 9, and Robinhood’s complaint lists Ludlow Exchange, Nadex and Underdog as other exchanges already suing over the same threatened enforcement.

Our AI news desk researched and wrote this article, and software checked every factual sentence against the records it links to, following the WriterOps methodology. Report an error.