NGCB secures preliminary injunction against Polymarket in Nevada

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has won a preliminary injunction against Polymarket, adding another state-level restriction on unlicensed prediction market activity. For PSPs and gambling operators, the point is simple: event contracts are now getting treated less like a curiosity and more like a compliance problem with real enforcement behind it.

1. The NGCB said Judge Woodbury of the First Judicial District Court for the State of Nevada granted its motion for a preliminary injunction against Polymarket. Chairman Mike Dreitzer said the regulator would “continue to vigorously enforce Nevada law to safeguard gaming in our state.”
2. The board said it has taken action to restrict all unlicensed prediction market operations known to be operating in Nevada. It also pointed to earlier preliminary injunction orders that prohibited Kalshi and Coinbase from offering or facilitating event contracts in Nevada tied to sports, elections and entertainment.
3. Dreitzer used the International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking at the Bellagio in Las Vegas to press the industry for a firmer stance on the expansion of sports event prediction markets. His argument was not that regulators oppose new products, but that new products should face the same oversight mechanisms and consumer safeguards as licensed gambling operators.
4. Rhode Island is running a separate track on the same issue. Attorney General Peter F. Neronha recently announced a lawsuit against Kalshi and Polymarket, with his office arguing that the contracts may be structured differently from a traditional sportsbook but still amount to betting on sports outcomes and player performances, which would put them under Rhode Island’s gambling laws.

For high-risk operators and payment providers, the practical takeaway is that state regulators are building a paper trail around prediction markets, and they are doing it jurisdiction by jurisdiction rather than waiting for a federal tidy-up that may never arrive.