Ohio is widening its fight against platforms offering sports event contracts. The Ohio Casino Control Commission has ordered ten prediction market sites to stop offering sports-related event contracts to Ohio users.
The recipients of the cease-and-desist orders include Novig, Polymarket, Underdog, Robinhood Derivatives, ProphetX, Gemini Titan, Plus500US, Webull, Moomoo, and Coinbase. Each company was given until October 16 to comply.
The commission specified that the sports contracts count as sports gaming under state law, meaning that offering such contracts requires an Ohio license, which none of the ten companies hold. The cease-and-desist orders come shortly after the Sixth Circuit’s ruling, which found that federal commodities law doesn’t stop Ohio from applying its sports gambling laws to prediction market contracts.
Let’s look at what prompted the orders and what could happen next for the prediction market platforms and their Ohio users.
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Ohio’s Case Against Sports Event Contracts
Ohio treats sports event contracts as sports gaming under state law. That means that
prediction market sites
offering them to users in the state must hold an Ohio sports gaming license. The ten companies named in the cease-and-desist orders don’t hold one. This prompted the Ohio Casino Control Commission to issue orders to each company to stop offering sports-related contracts and confirm their compliance.
The companies’ argument is that event contracts, including sports-related contracts, fall under federal commodities law and the oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). However, the Sixth Circuit ruled on September 25 that federal law doesn’t prevent the Ohio Casino Control Commission from applying standard sports gambling rules to sports-related event contracts.
Kalshi, one of the most well-established
sports prediction sites, wasn’t among the ten companies that received cease-and-desist orders because the platform is already involved in another legal dispute with the Ohio Casino Control Commission over the state’s authority to monitor and regulate sports contracts offered to Ohio users.
The cease-and-desist orders are entirely focused on sports contracts, meaning that the ten companies can still offer trading on other types of event contracts. This means that culture, economy, crypto, climate, and
politics prediction markets
are unaffected.
What Happens Next for Prediction Market Traders in Ohio?
The October 16 deadline has passed, and the Ohio Casino Control Commission has the right to take next steps against prediction market sites that continue offering sports contracts to Ohio users, such as pursuing civil, administrative, or criminal action.
In a separate warning, the Ohio Casino Control Commission told Ohio-licensed fantasy sports platforms, sportsbooks, and service providers to stop supporting sites offering sports contracts and confirm their compliance by October 30.
For prediction market traders in Ohio, the impact depends on how each company responds. Some may block access to sports contracts in the state, while others could continue business as usual, despite the warnings.
While the orders only cover sports-related markets, the legal dispute will still make a huge difference in how prediction market sites offer their services in Ohio.
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