State judge temporarily blocks prediction markets in Louisiana

Louisiana bettors with a varied taste for risk are out of luck for the time being after a Tangipahoa Parish judge issued a temporary injunction Thursday that blocks companies such as Kalshi, Polymarket and Robinhood from doing business in the state.

Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a complaint Thursday morning in Tangipahoa Parish against several prediction market companies, arguing they are not licensed to offer gambling in Louisiana.    

“It’s not complicated: If you aren’t a licensed gaming operator, you aren’t legal,” Murrill said in a statement Friday. “… Kalshi’s and the other operators’ attempts to make up new words to evade state gambling laws, regulators and taxes are not fooling anyone.”

Murrill added that illegal gambling is a crime in Louisiana, punishable by “jail time and significant penalties.” 

The state court order pauses what are known as event contracts, which allow bets on a variety of everyday occurrences, such as which actor will star in the next James Bond movie, future gas prices or whether the federal government will shut down next month. The platforms also accept sports bets, ranging from game outcomes to minutiae such as how many times Taylor Swift will appear on camera during a Kansas City Chiefs game.

Several states have pursued legal action to restrict or ban prediction markets within their respective boundaries. Some state courts, most notably in the gambling industry hub of Nevada, have ruled against the platforms, preventing them from taking event contract bets. 

Minnesota passed the nation’s first law in May to prohibit prediction markets, though a federal court has temporarily halted enforcement while the state appeals.

Polymarket sought relief from the U.S. District Court in New Orleans on Oct. 27 to prevent Louisiana from forcing it to shut down in the state. It maintains in its court complaint that its business is not subject to individual state laws.

“Prediction markets are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under a federal framework, not a patchwork of state rules,” a Polymarket spokesperson said in an email Friday.

A spokesperson for Robinhood noted that the company is registered with the federal agency to allow “customers to access prediction markets in a safe, compliant, and regulated manner.”

Before Thursday’s ruling in Tangipahoa Parish, Jovy Dedaj, Kalshi’s head of litigation, posted on X that Louisiana was making an “unlawful attempt to stop Kalshi from operating in the state.”

“The operation of federally regulated exchanges is the exclusive province of the federal government. Full stop,” Dedaj wrote.

The next hearing in state court over the injunction Murrill obtained is scheduled for Nov. 30. 

U.S. District Judge Lance Africk, a federal court appointee of President George W. Bush, was assigned Polymarket’s preemptive action against the state. He has not yet set a date for what’s next in that matter.