Utah files 14 criminal charges against Kalshi and its co-founders

Utah has filed 14 criminal charges against Kalshi and its co-founders, Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, alleging violations of state gambling law through the platform's sports-event contracts, according to documents filed by the Utah Attorney General's Office. The charges were announced on Wednesday 28 October and include 13 felony counts against the company and its founders.

According to the charging documents, investigators went undercover: a representative of the attorney general's office registered on Kalshi with a Utah address, phone number and a debit card issued locally. Location services confirmed where the account was, and over roughly a fortnight the agent made 12 sports wagers. Those wagers came to $114.87 in total, and the agent lost $25.10. The events bet on spanned NFL games, college football, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and an NHL game pitting the Utah Mammoth against the Colorado Avalanche. Half of the agent's predictions turned out correct.

Prosecutors built an online gambling promotion charge on every one of the 12 wagers, and the filing labels that offence a third-degree felony in Utah. Two further allegations appear in the charging documents: a pattern of unlawful activity, and general gambling promotion, which the state treats as a misdemeanor. Neither Mansour nor Lopes Lara was the subject of an arrest warrant. The pair were instead summoned to answer the charges in Utah's Third District Court in Salt Lake County.

This prosecution is the latest stage in a wider fight pitting Kalshi against Utah. Derek Brown, the state's attorney general, and Governor Spencer Cox maintain that prediction markets tied to sports constitute illegal gambling as defined by state law. Federal regulators have entered the fray as well: on Tuesday, October 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Utah, asking the court to halt the state's civil case against Kalshi and its probe of the company. The CFTC's position is that prediction markets fall under its oversight and that federal rules override state gambling laws that conflict with them.