CFTC sues Kentucky over Kalshi and Polymarket crackdown, breaking the blue-state-only pattern
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a one-count complaint against Kentucky on Tuesday, June 23, to block the state‘s enforcement actions against Kalshi and Polymarket. The lawsuit names the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear, Attorney General Russell Coleman, Department of Revenue Commissioner Thomas Miller, and the Kentucky Racing and Gaming Corporation as defendants. It asks the court to declare Kentucky’s prediction-market laws unconstitutional and to bar their enforcement. The complaint calls Kentucky‘s actions “the latest entries in Kentucky’s campaign to banish prediction markets from within their borders.” Kentucky becomes the ninth state the CFTC has sued in its campaign to assert exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts, after Illinois, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New Mexico. Prior targets included governors and attorneys general who were Democrats. In contrast, Kentucky does not follow this trend. While Beshear is a Democrat, Coleman is a Republican attorney general, which makes him the first such attorney general to face a CFTC suit. Colemans June 17 suit triggered the federal response in six days Coleman filed separate lawsuits against Kalshi and Polymarket on June 17 in Franklin Circuit Court, accusing both platforms of running unlicensed sportsbooks under Kentucky gambling law. “Kalshi and Polymarket are