Calci has been temporarily banned in Nevada

Calcium has been temporarily banned in Nevada, marking the latest escalation in expansion Organizational war On prediction markets. The 1st Judicial District Court of Nevada issued a 14-day restraining order, effective immediately, prohibiting the company from “offering a derivatives and forecasting exchange market that offers contracts based on sports-related, election-related, and entertainment-related events” without first obtaining gaming licenses.

This is the first time that a US state has forced the company to halt its operations. Kalci declined to comment.

This particular legal battle began a little over a year ago, when regulators in Nevada sent Calci a cease-and-desist letter demanding that it stop offering contracts for sports-related events. That set off a messy tug of war between plaintiffs and defendants as the case moved between state and federal court. For now, Calci can continue to operate in the state as its lawyers spar with authorities in what the company called a “judicial quagmire.”

After 14 days have passed, the court will then assess whether to extend the ban for the duration of the case before the court. “The expectation here is that the judge will turn the 14-day TRO into a long-term preliminary injunction,” says gaming attorney Daniel Wallach.

The ruling comes after a particularly tumultuous few weeks for Kelshi. On Tuesday, the Arizona Attorney General filed Criminal charges against the company, accusing it of running an illegal gambling operation. Just days ago, Calci filed a lawsuit against Arizona regulators, preemptively challenging any effort to make them follow the state’s gambling laws.

Dozens of similar Legal battles A debate is underway across the country over whether prediction markets should be forced to adhere to state gambling laws, including in Ohio, Tennessee and Massachusetts.

A number of prominent prediction market platforms, including Kalshi, offer sports-related contracts to people over the age of 18 across the United States, even when state gambling laws prohibit sports betting. The result is that a 19-year-old in Utah can put his money on the outcome of a football game through prediction markets, but not through sports betting, as the state prohibits it outright. It also means that a 19-year-old in Indiana can make a prediction similar to a market bet, even though the state’s gambling law prohibits people under 21 from placing bets. This has made a growing group of Lawmakers from both parties grouchy.

Contracts for sports-related events — where, for example, someone can bet on which teams will win the Super Bowl or a particular March Madness basketball game — are not a form of betting, Kalci says. Instead, the company says they should be viewed as financial instruments known as “swaps.” So far, the federal government has agreed to this. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the US agency that oversees swaps and other financial derivatives markets, asserts that it has exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets. The agency’s head, Michael Selig, strongly rejected claims that the industry should be subject to government gambling laws, telling critics he would see them “in court.”

The federal government’s position has not stopped several state attorneys and gaming commissions from continuing their legal battles, and they have recently scored some notable victories. In January, Nevada Forbidden Polymarket cannot operate within the country; The temporary restraining order is in effect until April. It was a victory for the side of predicting that markets are a gamble, albeit a limited one: Although Polymarket has a modest official presence in the US, the bulk of its trading volume takes place on its global exchange, which is technically blocked in the US but can be accessed by traders willing to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to get around the ban.

Last week, an Ohio judge dismissed Calci after the prediction market company filed a preliminary injunction to prevent state regulators from pursuing it for violating the state’s gambling laws. in Her command In denying Kalci’s request, U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of Ohio Sarah D. Morrison, said the court was obliged to “avoid absurdity.”