Kalshi Barred from Sports Contracts on Tribal Lands

Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order on November 4. Under the order, Kalshi may not offer sports event contracts on the lands of the Blue Lake Rancheria and Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians tribes. The ban is currently in effect and applies only to those lands, not statewide or nationwide.

Kalshi had said it kept these areas closed using geolocation blocking. The court made that measure legally binding. The tribes, however, reported that a member of the Blue Lake Gaming Commission placed a trade on tribal land after the blocks were said to be active. Kalshi said it works with the location verification provider GeoComply. The company argued that the report recorded the trade as taking place on September 25, while information sent on October 7 pointed to October 2. It said it had discussed the reported problem with GeoComply.

On September 16, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the tribes. The court found that the tribes were likely to succeed on their claim under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. It reversed the denial of the preliminary injunction and sent the questions of harm, balance of hardships, and public interest back to Judge Corley. The court said that a user who trades on tribal land at least partly brings that trade onto those lands, and that the location of the servers elsewhere does not change this. The ruling is not final.

Kalshi and Robinhood had argued that the exchanges are under federal oversight. The court said this oversight does not remove the separate requirements of the tribal gaming regime. The ban binds Kalshi and KalshiEX and also covers esports and chess contracts. Robinhood is a party to the case, but it is not named in the ban order.

The tribes will provide Kalshi with boundary maps by November 13, 2026. Kalshi must then file a compliance report within 21 days of the order, meaning by November 25, showing how it is preventing sports event contract offerings within those boundaries.