Missouri orders six prediction markets to stop offering sports contracts

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has told six prediction market operators to stop offering sports event contracts to customers in the state unless they obtain licences from the Missouri Gaming Commission. For high-risk operators, the practical issue is simple: if the product looks like sports wagering, Missouri wants it treated like sports wagering.

1. Hanaway’s cease-and-desist letters target Crypto.com, Kalshi, Nova, Polymarket, Robinhood and Underdog. Her office says the contracts are unlicensed sports wagering under Missouri law, not something that can be relabelled as an “event contract” and left outside the state gaming framework.
2. The state’s position rests on Missouri’s sports betting regime, which voters approved in 2024 and which launched online in December 2025. In other words, Missouri already has a regulated sports wagering market on the books, and the attorney general is saying these products should be brought into it rather than run alongside it.
3. Hanaway’s office says the same rules should apply to prediction markets offering sports contracts as to licensed sportsbooks: Missouri Gaming Commission licensing, a 10 per cent tax on adjusted gross revenue, age verification, and responsible gambling controls. Licensed sportsbooks in the state must restrict wagering to customers aged 21 and over.
4. The attorney general also pointed to recent federal appeals court decisions finding that sports event contracts do not qualify as swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The cease-and-desist orders warn that Missouri may take legal action if the operators do not comply, although Hanaway said she would prefer the companies agree to operate under state gaming regulations and taxation.

For PSPs, acquirers, and banks, the message is not subtle: if a product offers sports exposure to Missouri customers, the state is treating licensing, tax, age checks, and responsible gambling obligations as the baseline, even when the product is packaged as a prediction market contract.