US appeals court limits sports event contracts on California tribal land, hitting Kalshi again

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has blocked Kalshi from offering sports event contracts on the lands of two California tribes. For high-risk payments and gambling-adjacent businesses, the point is not the headline itself; it is that venue and jurisdiction still matter, even when a product is dressed up as a federally regulated contract.

1. On Wednesday, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting in San Francisco, voted 3-0 to grant a preliminary injunction to Blue Lake Rancheria and Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians. The panel said the tribes are likely to show that Kalshi’s contracts violate the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) and the tribes’ own gaming ordinances.
2. Judge Margaret McKeown, writing for the court, said each of Kalshi’s sports contracts amounts to an activity equivalent to placing a bet, and that these products count as Class III gaming under IGRA when contracted from tribal land. The case now goes back to US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco to assess the remaining factors needed to decide on injunctive relief.
3. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling does not itself impose an immediate ban on Kalshi’s sports contracts on those lands. It does, however, give the tribes a legal footing to stop the offering there while the lower court works through the injunction analysis.
4. The tribes said they allow gambling on their reservations under procedures approved by the US Department of the Interior, but that no agreement authorizes outside operators such as Kalshi to offer sports betting on tribal land. Kalshi argued that its products are federally regulated event contracts, not traditional sports bets, and that the Commodity Exchange Act places them under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The court rejected Kalshi’s argument that the federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act displaces IGRA’s protections.
5. This is Kalshi’s second legal setback in less than a month. On August 28, the same court ruled that Kalshi must submit to oversight from Nevada gaming regulators. The ruling also lands on Robinhood Markets, which routes customer event-contract orders through Kalshi; a Robinhood spokesperson said the company is reviewing its legal options.

For PSPs and platform operators, the useful takeaway is straightforward: event contracts may be framed as federal derivatives products, but once the transaction touches tribal land or a state gaming regime, the compliance stack gets very different very quickly. Kalshi’s fight is now about more than product design; it is about which rulebook applies at the point of contract.