Ohio regulator warns licensees over prediction market services

The Ohio Casino Control Commission has sent a notice to sports betting and fantasy contest licensees and applicants in the state warning that providing services to prediction market operators may affect their suitability. Andromeda Morrison, the commission's interim executive director, told the seven-member Commission on Wednesday that licensees and applicants must confirm compliance with the notice by 30 October. The notice was first reported by The Event Horizon newsletter.

The notice conveyed serious worry on the part of the OCCC over reports that some licensees keep backing or furnishing services to businesses that offer sports-event contracts to Ohio residents who hold no sports gaming license. Those services are reportedly of the kind that include "liquidity, market making, integrity monitoring, equipment, data security, and other technology-related services." A licensee that facilitates or supports illegal gambling, or that is affiliated with illegal operators, faces major suitability questions, the notice states, and suitability is an obligation that continues for as long as the licence is held. The notice further reminded licensees that taking part in unlicensed sports betting in Ohio says something about their character and reputation and "undermines public confidence in Ohio’s regulated sports gaming and fantasy contest markets."

Morrison described the notice as building on guidance the commission gave in August 2025. She repeated the commission's established view that prediction markets selling contracts tied to sports events are acting beyond what Ohio law permits. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled in the commission's favour, she said, the OCCC sent cease-and-desist letters to 10 prediction market companies that seem to be selling sports-event contracts in Ohio. That federal court held that Ohio was entitled to enforce its gaming laws against Kalshi. The 10 firms told to stop offering such contracts in the state by October 16 were Underdog, Gemini Titan, Coinbase, Prophet X, Novig, Robinhood, Polymarket, Plus500, Moomoo and Webull.

According to Morrison, talks with a number of the recipients of the cease-and-desist letters have been constructive, though she declined to say which companies were involved. She added that the matters have not been closed and that the commission keeps watching how they develop.

In her monthly report to the Commission, Morrison told members that the commission learned on Tuesday of a federal lawsuit Polymarket had filed in the Southern District of Ohio. The suit raises preemption questions and also attacks the state's sports betting regulatory framework as unconstitutional, she said. Polymarket brought the case over the cease-and-desist notice, arguing that the letter breaches the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and is preempted by the federal Commodity Exchange Act. The 46-page complaint notes that offering sports gaming in Ohio without an OCCC licence is a felony, yet few licences are available to operators with an in-state presence. The lawsuit states that even with a licence, Polymarket U.S. would have to operate within Ohio and serve only people physically located there, which would separate it from the rest of the country. Polymarket's attorneys contended that "These discriminatory balkanizing measures violate the Constitution’s promise of open interstate commerce." The company seeks both a preliminary and a permanent injunction against the state.

Morrison said the commission is examining the complaint alongside the attorney general's office and intends to defend Ohio's sports gaming laws vigorously. Republican Governor Mike DeWine has reportedly directed Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson to start bringing lawsuits against the 10 prediction market operators that have not yet complied with the cease-and-desist notices. DeWine told the Statehouse News Bureau that both the law and the court decisions are very clear, and that the attorney general is doing what is required because these matters are not self-executing.