The attorney general’s office said on Nov. 6, 2026 that Attorney General joined two bipartisan coalitions of state attorneys general in filing amicus briefs supporting New York and Wisconsin in lawsuits involving prediction market operator Kalshi.
The office said the briefs primarily argue that federal preemption of state gambling laws as applied to prediction market providers is improper and detrimental to the traditional role of states to regulate gambling and protect vulnerable citizens.
In the New York case, KalshiEX, LLC v. Williams, et al., the office said Kalshi sued the New York State Gaming Commission after the commission issued a cease-and-desist order; the district court denied Kalshi’s preliminary injunction motion and Kalshi has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The office said the Wisconsin matter arose after Wisconsin filed a state-court action against Coinbase, Kalshi, Robinhood, Polymarket, and Crypto.com; the defendants moved the cases to federal court, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission filed a federal suit and sought a preliminary injunction, the district court denied that motion, and CFTC has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
The attorney general’s office said these two filings mark California’s tenth and eleventh times joining multistate amicus efforts targeting Kalshi and similar prediction market companies; California joined the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming in filing the briefs.
Attorney General Bonta said, "We are seeing more and more young people being preyed upon by addictive gaming platforms and it is time for states to join together to protect our youth. This filing is representative of our bipartisan commitment to protecting state regulatory authority over illegal, unregulated gambling operations."
Attorney General Bonta said, "Prediction markets cannot use federal loopholes to bypass state consumer protection, sports gaming, and gambling laws. By joining this brief, we stand firmly with Wisconsin, New York, and our state partners to ensure that federal commodities laws are not weaponized to evade state laws, fuel gambling addiction, and undermine state regulation of legal gaming."
Both appeals are now pending in federal courts of appeal; their outcomes will determine whether appellate courts treat federal commodities law as preempting state gambling laws in disputes over prediction markets.
State
Rob Bonta
Attorney General · Democrat
Named 3 times in this story.
Portrait: Official portrait
Sources & methodology
This report was written from the primary materials below. Links open at the original publisher.
California Attorney GeneralSee something we should correct? Read our corrections policy.