Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour accused Arizona's Attorney General of making a “total overstep” in filing criminal charges against the prediction platform.
Twenty counts of criminal activity were alleged by Attorney General Kris Mayes in a document submitted to a state court on Tuesday.
Key Takeaways
- Kalshi filed a federal lawsuit against Arizona last week.
- Mansour suggested the Arizona AG could’ve attacked Kalshi to try to gain support in an election year.
- States have ruled in favor and against Kalshi, failing to establish a clear precedent for Arizona.
Legal battles in Arizona aren’t new to Kalshi. While speaking with Bloomberg, Mansour said that Kalshi filed a federal lawsuit against Arizona last week regarding its exclusive regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Arizona responded by filing charges of its own, claiming that Kalshi is running an “illegal gambling market” that unlawfully allowed customers to wager on Arizona elections.
U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi on Tuesday also denied Kalshi’s request for a temporary block against the state, informing the company it needed to explain why the case belonged in federal court in light of the new charges.
Despite the severity of the state’s accusations, Mansour claimed the Attorney General was merely attempting to subvert the judicial process.
“We view (these charges) as meritless and baseless,” he said to Bloomberg. “We see this as a total overstep, and we look forward to fighting it in court … Whatever long it takes, we’re going to fight for prediction markets.”
Kalshi and other prediction apps have grown increasingly controversial because of their sports event contracts that state officials believe mimic sports betting. However, Mansour also dismissed the idea that the new charges were about sports gambling.
Instead, he claimed they were about prediction markets as a whole. He also said that there wasn’t anything in place to prevent attorneys general in all 50 states from filing the same charges against derivative markets, including CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., and NASDAQ.
“That’s the whole point of federal regulation of these financial exchanges, to prevent this sort of chaos, and these sorts of attacks on these businesses that could be political in nature, or other, and that's a very important distinction,” Mansour said.
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Increased scrutiny
When asked if Kalshi would consider removing controversial markets from its platform, Mansour went on the offensive.
“The AG also claimed we have war markets, which is incorrect; it’s either a flat-out lie, or it’s a misinformed take, which is unfortunate for someone that’s filing criminal charges against the company,” he said. “What’s more important here, again, is this is not about the merits. If it’s about the merits, let’s let the judicial process run its course in federal courts.
“This is about something other than the merits, which is what I’m focused on. I don’t know what the AG is focused on, but she is up for re-election – it did some press, it does seem to be making some buzz – but what I’m really focused on is building a great product for our millions of customers, of which close to 400,000 are in Arizona, and fighting any of these baseless cases in court, which we’re going to continue doing.”
When asked about a potential ruling, Mansour reaffirmed Kalshi’s commitment to the law. He also pointed out that Kalshi is compliant with its CFTC regulations and that the law also applies to state officials.
The rule of law applies to everyone - including state governments.
— Tarek Mansour (@mansourtarek_) March 18, 2026
The Arizona Attorney General’s charges are baseless and a clear overreach. It’s gamesmanship from a politician who’s up for reelection.
The charges claim that putting money on “a contingent future event or… https://t.co/TU4I8HV1CT
There isn’t a clear precedent established for cases involving prediction markets. Federal and state judges in Nevada and Massachusetts, respectively, ruled in favor of states and their right to halt prediction platforms from providing sports event contracts in their jurisdictions. The Nevada case was eventually remanded to the state court.
Meanwhile, federal judges in New Jersey and Tennessee ruled in favor of Kalshi and other platforms, granting a temporary injunction.
Big money in March Madness
Arizona’s attack on Kalshi came days before tip off in March Madness, which, in total, is the busiest and most lucrative time of the year for sportsbooks. Prediction platforms are expected to capitalize on the non-stop action, which runs from March 19 through April 6.
Users at Kalshi and other prediction platforms buy and sell contracts related to “Yes” and “No” outcomes. In the case of March Madness, markets include a team to win the national championship, reach a certain stage of the competition, largest upset, and many more.
Kalshi previously announced it would award $1 billion to any user who created a perfect bracket. However, it never used the NCAA-trademarked terms “March Madness” or “NCAA.”
