By Emma Kinery
Gongwer News Service
A Michigan judge granted state regulators a preliminary injunction against Kalshi, continuing the prediction market operator’s prohibition from offering sports event contracts in the state and upping the fine for violating the court-ordered geofence from $120,000 to $500,000 a day.
Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina previously granted state regulators a temporary restraining order against Kalshi in June. Tuesday’s decision converted the previous order to a preliminary injunction.
Within three business days of the order being entered, Kalshi is required to notify all other prediction markets that use its platform to process their exchanges like Robinhood and Coinbase.
“Michigan and its most vulnerable citizens are suffering and will continue to suffer immediate and irreparable harm absent relief from being exploited by Kalshi’s sports betting operation masquerading as an investment opportunity,” Aquilina wrote in the ruling.
Under the judge’s order, Kalshi is barred from offering, listing or otherwise facilitating anything that could constitute sports betting under Michigan law to someone located in Michigan or through a platform or channel accessible in the state.
The prediction market platform is also banned from advertising, promoting or marketing to anyone in the state or using a Michigan address. The order applies to websites, mobile apps, email, push notifications, social media, influencers, affiliates and paid placements.
The judge also banned the site from allowing accounts to be created elsewhere for the sole purpose of allowing people to circumvent the order or for Kalshi to design, launch or operate products that are “functionally similar” to internet sports betting like single-game bets, parlays, in-game betting, or prop bets to anyone located in Michigan.
Like the June order, Kalshi is required to use a third-party geolocation service provider licensed by the Michigan Gaming Control Board able to meet the specifications outlined by the Board’s Technical Bulletin.
In her reasoning, the judge noted that Michigan’s legal sports betting age is 21 but Kalshi lets people as young as 18 place wagers: “The potential irreparable harm on Michigan’s youth would be profound.”
She also wrote that by circumventing the established state regulatory system, Kalshi fails to provide things like patron protections or guardrails around addiction, while “tak[ing] advantage of serious mental health issues” and taking money from critical tax programs to fund schools, compulsive gambling prevention, economic development and first responders, particularly for Detroit. The company also deprives tribes of revenue needed to operate their governments and serve citizens “while also ignoring their sovereignty,” the judge wrote.
“Kalshi’s failure to comply with Michigan gaming law gives it a massive and unfair advantage over the entities that comply with Michigan’s regulatory structure, which greatly disrupts the industry,” Aquilina wrote.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued Kalshi in March in state court on behalf of the state and the Michigan Gaming Control Board, becoming only the second state after Massachusetts to sue the prediction market operator. Nessel alleged Kalshi is in violation of Michigan’s Lawful Sports Betting Act by illegally offering online sports wagers to state residents, and she sought to permanently block the company from offering sports betting and advertising in the state.
The following day Robinhood and Polymarket sued the state in federal court. Coinbase had previously sued the Michigan Gaming Control Board, state and attorney general in federal court in December 2025.
On June 29, Judge Aquilina granted the state’s request for a temporary restraining order against Kalshi, making Michigan one of two states at the time with an active ban on Kalshi’s sports event contracts. Courts in Massachusetts and Nevada had both issued orders banning the company from operating, but Massachusetts’s order was appealed and the company is allowed to operate while the final decision is pending. A judge in Washington state has blocked Kalshi from operating in the state since the ruling was laid down.
The Michigan temporary restraining order required Kalshi to use a licensed third-party geofencing provider and ban “any person located in” the state. In a previous Nevada ban, Kalshi had blocked users based on their registered home address, not geofence, allowing visitors to continue to wager. Attorneys for the state alleged in court that it did not work, which led to the geofence being instituted.
Kalshi has repeatedly pushed back on the feasibility of implementing the technology, arguing it is prohibitively expensive. Judge Aquilina on July 9 granted an emergency motion by the company pausing the geofencing until Kalshi could show it is an infeasible request. Other sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel use geofencing. Oral arguments were heard four days later and the judge ruled the temporary restraining order would remain in place.
Nessel said the preliminary injunction ruling was justified in a statement responding to the decision Wednesday.
“Kalshi long attempted to pass itself off as a legitimate gaming operation in our state, and I am relieved that this order further protects Michigan residents from its predatory, unlicensed practices,” Nessel said. “My office will continue to defend Michiganders and enforce our gaming laws, which ensure gambling revenue is regulated and distributed back into our communities.”
A spokesperson for Kalshi referred to the statement from the company’s Head of Communications Elisabeth Diana when the initial temporary restraining order was handed down in June.
“It’s no surprise that we disagree with the state’s decision and will fight it in court,” Diana said at the time. “Kalshi is subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction. We won’t be bullied by interests that care more about protecting their monopolies than their consumers. In the meantime, we’re implementing restrictions.”
Last month a federal judge in Michigan denied Coinbase’s request for a preliminary injunction in a similar case. U.S. District Judge Shalina Kumar of the Eastern District of Michigan ruled the company’s sports event contracts are not “swaps” as the industry alleges and can be regulated by the state in the same manner other gambling operators are.
Gongwer News Service
A Michigan judge granted state regulators a preliminary injunction against Kalshi, continuing the prediction market operator’s prohibition from offering sports event contracts in the state and upping the fine for violating the court-ordered geofence from $120,000 to $500,000 a day.
Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina previously granted state regulators a temporary restraining order against Kalshi in June. Tuesday’s decision converted the previous order to a preliminary injunction.
Within three business days of the order being entered, Kalshi is required to notify all other prediction markets that use its platform to process their exchanges like Robinhood and Coinbase.
“Michigan and its most vulnerable citizens are suffering and will continue to suffer immediate and irreparable harm absent relief from being exploited by Kalshi’s sports betting operation masquerading as an investment opportunity,” Aquilina wrote in the ruling.
Under the judge’s order, Kalshi is barred from offering, listing or otherwise facilitating anything that could constitute sports betting under Michigan law to someone located in Michigan or through a platform or channel accessible in the state.
The prediction market platform is also banned from advertising, promoting or marketing to anyone in the state or using a Michigan address. The order applies to websites, mobile apps, email, push notifications, social media, influencers, affiliates and paid placements.
The judge also banned the site from allowing accounts to be created elsewhere for the sole purpose of allowing people to circumvent the order or for Kalshi to design, launch or operate products that are “functionally similar” to internet sports betting like single-game bets, parlays, in-game betting, or prop bets to anyone located in Michigan.
Like the June order, Kalshi is required to use a third-party geolocation service provider licensed by the Michigan Gaming Control Board able to meet the specifications outlined by the Board’s Technical Bulletin.
In her reasoning, the judge noted that Michigan’s legal sports betting age is 21 but Kalshi lets people as young as 18 place wagers: “The potential irreparable harm on Michigan’s youth would be profound.”
She also wrote that by circumventing the established state regulatory system, Kalshi fails to provide things like patron protections or guardrails around addiction, while “tak[ing] advantage of serious mental health issues” and taking money from critical tax programs to fund schools, compulsive gambling prevention, economic development and first responders, particularly for Detroit. The company also deprives tribes of revenue needed to operate their governments and serve citizens “while also ignoring their sovereignty,” the judge wrote.
“Kalshi’s failure to comply with Michigan gaming law gives it a massive and unfair advantage over the entities that comply with Michigan’s regulatory structure, which greatly disrupts the industry,” Aquilina wrote.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued Kalshi in March in state court on behalf of the state and the Michigan Gaming Control Board, becoming only the second state after Massachusetts to sue the prediction market operator. Nessel alleged Kalshi is in violation of Michigan’s Lawful Sports Betting Act by illegally offering online sports wagers to state residents, and she sought to permanently block the company from offering sports betting and advertising in the state.
The following day Robinhood and Polymarket sued the state in federal court. Coinbase had previously sued the Michigan Gaming Control Board, state and attorney general in federal court in December 2025.
On June 29, Judge Aquilina granted the state’s request for a temporary restraining order against Kalshi, making Michigan one of two states at the time with an active ban on Kalshi’s sports event contracts. Courts in Massachusetts and Nevada had both issued orders banning the company from operating, but Massachusetts’s order was appealed and the company is allowed to operate while the final decision is pending. A judge in Washington state has blocked Kalshi from operating in the state since the ruling was laid down.
The Michigan temporary restraining order required Kalshi to use a licensed third-party geofencing provider and ban “any person located in” the state. In a previous Nevada ban, Kalshi had blocked users based on their registered home address, not geofence, allowing visitors to continue to wager. Attorneys for the state alleged in court that it did not work, which led to the geofence being instituted.
Kalshi has repeatedly pushed back on the feasibility of implementing the technology, arguing it is prohibitively expensive. Judge Aquilina on July 9 granted an emergency motion by the company pausing the geofencing until Kalshi could show it is an infeasible request. Other sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel use geofencing. Oral arguments were heard four days later and the judge ruled the temporary restraining order would remain in place.
Nessel said the preliminary injunction ruling was justified in a statement responding to the decision Wednesday.
“Kalshi long attempted to pass itself off as a legitimate gaming operation in our state, and I am relieved that this order further protects Michigan residents from its predatory, unlicensed practices,” Nessel said. “My office will continue to defend Michiganders and enforce our gaming laws, which ensure gambling revenue is regulated and distributed back into our communities.”
A spokesperson for Kalshi referred to the statement from the company’s Head of Communications Elisabeth Diana when the initial temporary restraining order was handed down in June.
“It’s no surprise that we disagree with the state’s decision and will fight it in court,” Diana said at the time. “Kalshi is subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction. We won’t be bullied by interests that care more about protecting their monopolies than their consumers. In the meantime, we’re implementing restrictions.”
Last month a federal judge in Michigan denied Coinbase’s request for a preliminary injunction in a similar case. U.S. District Judge Shalina Kumar of the Eastern District of Michigan ruled the company’s sports event contracts are not “swaps” as the industry alleges and can be regulated by the state in the same manner other gambling operators are.
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