Regulators order prediction markets platforms out of Connecticut

• Nine platforms including Polymarket, Robinhood and Coinbase ordered to halt sports-event contracts in Connecticut.
• 29 subpoenas issued to licensees, media organizations and payment and app-store firms.
• One platform reported nearly $250 million in college football trading on opening day.

Connecticut has ordered nine prediction market platforms, including Polymarket, Robinhood and Coinbase, to stop offering sports-event contracts to state residents.

The Department of Consumer Protection issued the cease-and-desist orders on September 10, alongside 29 subpoenas tied to a widening investigation into the sector.

Nine names on notice

The Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) named Polymarket, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Robinhood, ProphetX, Novig, Webull, Gemini and Underdog Predict in the orders. Each was told to stop advertising, promoting or offering sports-event contracts to Connecticut residents immediately, and to let the nine platforms’ customers withdraw any funds already held on their accounts.

Companies that ignore the order risk civil penalties under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, or criminal charges under the state’s gaming statutes.

Connecticut has three licensed sports-wagering platforms: DraftKings at Foxwoods, FanDuel at Mohegan Sun and Fanatics through the Connecticut Lottery, each bound to a minimum betting age of 21.

DCP alleges that several of the nine platforms accepted wagers from bettors under that age, from people on the state’s voluntary self-exclusion list, and from users betting on Connecticut collegiate sports, which state law bars specifically to shield college athletes from outside influence.

Kalshi does not appear among the names. Connecticut is pursuing Kalshi separately, having sued the company in court rather than issuing it a fresh order.

Casting a wider net

The subpoenas extend well past the nine named operators. DCP sent requests to nine licensed gaming service providers: PayPal, LexisNexis, Plaid, Paysafecard, Integrity Compliance 360, SportRadar Solutions, Genius Sports Media, Genius Tech International and Socure.

A further 15 media organizations received subpoenas, including Hearst Connecticut Media, WFSB and ESPN.

DCP separately subpoenaed Apple’s App Store, Google Play, Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Stripe over app listings and payment processing. The department said none of the 29 recipients are under investigation themselves, but may hold information relevant to the inquiry.

Commissioner Bryan T. Cafferelli, Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, said:

“Our laws are clear: sports betting may only be offered by legal, licensed sportsbooks that adhere to our regulations and technical standards. We are, first and foremost a consumer protection agency, and we will continue to do everything we can to protect all Connecticut consumers from misleading business practices that compromise their health and safety, personal information and hard-earned money.”

Speaking to NBC Connecticut, Cafferelli put the comparison more bluntly.

“They’re indistinguishable from sports wagering, except they don’t have consumer protections and they aren’t adhering to our laws, our regulations, or our technical standards.”

Officials cited an American Gaming Association estimate that $40 billion will be wagered on the NFL through prediction markets this year, and pointed to a report that one platform recorded nearly $250 million in college football trading volume on the opening day of the 2026 season.

Robinhood, Polymarket and Coinbase told NBC Connecticut that federal authorities, not the state, regulate prediction markets, a position central to the dispute now playing out in multiple courts.

A fractured legal map

The state sued Kalshi directly, and in August, U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver denied the company’s request for a preliminary injunction, ruling its sports-event contracts do not qualify as swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act and, even if they did, that Connecticut’s gambling laws would not be preempted. Kalshi has appealed to the Second Circuit.

Governor Ned Lamont framed the latest orders as consistent with the terms set when the state legalized sports betting.

“When we legalized sports wagering in 2021, the goal was to create a safe, responsibly regulated market for Connecticut consumers, not to open a free-for-all.”

Other states are producing conflicting answers to the same question. In late August, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Kalshi had not shown federal law preempts Nevada’s gaming rules, upholding a lower court’s decision to dissolve an injunction that had shielded its sports contracts there. T

hat sits against an earlier Third Circuit ruling favoring Kalshi in a related New Jersey case, a split that has pushed New Jersey to the Supreme Court. Washington has separately ordered Kalshi to geofence its sports and election contracts or face daily fines.

None of that resolves what the nine Connecticut platforms do next. DCP’s order carries no automatic enforcement mechanism beyond the penalties it has already threatened, and nothing stops a platform from fighting it in court the way Kalshi has.

With appeals pending in two circuits and a Supreme Court petition on the table, Connecticut’s nine may simply be waiting to see which court moves first.