Ohio orders 10 platforms to halt sports contracts

• Ohio Casino Control Commission sends cease-and-desist letters to 10 prediction market operators and brokerages.
• Recipients must confirm in writing by October 16 that they have stopped offering sports contracts.
• Notices follow a September 25 Sixth Circuit ruling that denied Kalshi preliminary relief in Ohio.

The Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) has ordered 10 prediction market operators and brokerages, including Polymarket, Robinhood and Coinbase, to immediately stop offering sports event contracts in the state.

The October 2 letters require written confirmation of compliance by October 16. They arrive one week after a federal appeals court cleared the way for Ohio enforcement.

Ten names, no Kalshi

The recipients also include Novig, Underdog, ProphetX, Gemini Titan, Webull, Plus500 and Moomoo Financial. Each notice is addressed to an operating entity, such as PM US Tech for Polymarket.

The group mixes crypto exchanges, retail brokerages and sports-first platforms. Underdog exited traditional sports betting in December 2025. Novig and ProphetX both secured CFTC designated contract market status in June.

Kalshi is not among the recipients. Ohio’s dispute with the exchange is already before the federal courts. Crypto.com, which was named in an earlier Ohio notice in March 2025, does not appear among the October 2 recipients. No Ohio-licensed sportsbook appears on the list either.

Bookmaking by another name

Every letter is signed by Andromeda Morrison, the OCCC’s interim executive director, and every letter sets out the same reasoning.

Andromeda Morrison, Interim Executive Director, Ohio Casino Control Commission, wrote in the letters:

“The ultimate result is money being won or lost based on the outcome of a game or a team or player’s performance.”

The commission says offering sports gaming without a license is a felony under Ohio law. It also alleges the platforms are engaged in bookmaking, or facilitating it, under the state’s criminal code.

The letters warn that the OCCC may seek a civil penalty equal to the money or property obtained through Ohio sports contracts. They also describe each operator’s website as a nuisance subject to abatement.

The commission says noncompliance could lead to administrative, civil, nuisance or criminal proceedings. Those proceedings could target the companies, their officers and their parent groups.

Robinhood’s letter is a reminder rather than a first warning. It reasserts a notice issued on March 31, 2025, which the OCCC held in abeyance until the federal courts ruled on Kalshi’s challenge.

The letter also identifies Rothera Exchange and Clearing, which the commission says Robinhood jointly operates with Susquehanna International Group. Rothera began handling live Robinhood customer trades in late May.

Courts clear the way

The letters cite a September 25 decision from the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. A unanimous three-judge panel held that Kalshi had not shown its sports contracts qualify as swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act, according to the published opinion.

The court said the Act would not preempt Ohio’s or Tennessee’s gambling laws even if the contracts were swaps. It upheld the denial of Kalshi’s preliminary injunction in Ohio. It also vacated the injunction Kalshi had secured in Tennessee.

Kalshi has said it disagrees with the ruling. The OCCC had already moved against the exchange in April, when it gave notice that it intends to fine Kalshi $5 million.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a longtime gambling opponent, welcomed the decision. DeWine said:

“These so-called prediction markets—which are really gambling, nothing more than that—they’re just trying to get around the law, don’t want to play by the same rules everybody else does, and they don’t want to be regulated by the state. And we think that’s wrong.”

Federal appeals courts remain divided. The Ninth Circuit sided with Nevada in August. In April, the Third Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction for Kalshi against New Jersey. New Jersey has since asked the Supreme Court to review that ruling.

The October 16 deadline forces each recipient to choose between geofencing Ohio and contesting the notices under appellate precedent that currently favors the state.

The ruling gives Ohio and other Sixth Circuit states room to pursue enforcement. It does not settle the circuit split. Any Supreme Court review could still reshape how far state gambling law reaches into CFTC-regulated markets.