Who Is the Real Chief of the Tribe? New Lawsuit Filed Against Kalshi

Over the past two years, Kalshi has been fighting regulators in state and federal courts. Now a dispute could also move into tribal court. The Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town and Chief Samuel Marshall Jr. have sued Kalshi, CEO Tarek Mansour, and tribal members Wilson Yargee and Michael Stopp.

According to the lawsuit, Yargee has continued to act as chief even though he was removed from the position in 2021. Marshall argues that tribal government did not approve Kalshi's agreement for PokkeTrades, a prediction market app. The suit asks the court to declare that the tribe is not bound by the agreement and that Yargee had no authority to enter into it. It also seeks a temporary restraining order, damages, and correction of the defendants' claims.

Marshall says the tribe has spent money to correct the public record on who has authority. In his view, Yargee has damaged business relationships and created confusion about the town and the tribe's leadership. Yargee, for his part, says he is the rightful chief and was re-elected in 2025. Both Marshall and Yargee appear as chief on the Bureau of Indian Affairs list. Yargee and his group signed the agreement last month. The company presented it as the first deal of its kind between a prediction market and a tribe, and said the tribe's official government had approved it. Stopp, meanwhile, claims that Marshall leads only a faction of the tribe and that the governing council approved the Kalshi agreement.

This is not the only case in which a tribe has taken legal action against a prediction market. In October, the Seminole Tribe sued DraftKings, alleging that the company's prediction market violates Florida's gaming laws.

In Oklahoma, a ban on sweepstakes games took effect on November 1. The legislature passed the measure in May, overriding a veto by Governor Kevin Stitt. The law prohibits dual-currency gaming platforms. Geolocation providers, game suppliers, promoters and media partners that work with these sites could also be treated as having committed a serious crime. The ban affects poker players in the state, since sweepstakes and offshore sites were their only online options.

According to American Gaming Association data, Oklahoma generated $164.6 million in commercial gaming revenue in 2025. The industry's main strength, however, is tribal gaming operations. Based on figures released by the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services, those operations produced $3.64 billion in revenue in 2025, a 5 percent increase over 2024.