The state of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against five prediction market platforms and their affiliates on Thursday (April 23), alleging they run illegal sports betting operations in the state.
Target complaints everything, Robinhood, Coinbase, Polymarket, crypto.com and its subsidiaries, Wisconsin Department of Justice He said on Thursday press release.
“Thinly concealing illegal conduct does not make it legal,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Cole he said in the release. “These companies’ alleged facilities for sports betting in the state of Wisconsin must be shut down.”
Sports betting and other forms of commercial gambling are illegal in Wisconsin, except in limited circumstances, according to the release.
The state’s lawsuits filed Thursday allege that the defendants are violating the law while disguising sports betting as event contracts, and that they engage in illegal gambling activity by charging fees on “bets” they facilitate, the statement said.
The lawsuits seek a declaration that the companies violated state law by creating a public nuisance as well as preliminary and permanent injunctions barring them from facilitating sports-related event contracts for customers located in Wisconsin, according to the release.
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Reached via PYMNTS, everything “As other courts have recognized, Kalshi is a nationwide regulated exchange for real-world events, subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction. It is very different from what sports casinos and state-regulated casinos offer to their customers. We are confident in our legal arguments,” he said in an emailed statement.
A Robinhood “As we have previously shared, Robinhood’s event contracts are federally regulated by the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and offered through Robinhood derivativesLLC, a CFTC registered entity, allowing retail clients to access the prediction markets in a safe, compliant and regulated manner. We intend to defend ourselves against these allegations.”
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal He said on Thursday mail On LinkedIn, Congress made clear that consumers deserve federal oversight of derivatives markets and that the Third Circuit held that state actions against prediction markets create the kind of patchwork that Congress replaced by creating the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
“Wisconsin must accept clear and consistent CFTC oversight of prediction markets — just as Congress intended,” Grewal said in his post.
no Polymarket no crypto.com A PYMNTS request for comment was immediately responded to.
The CFTC filed lawsuits against Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois on April 2, saying the states took actions that intruded on the regulator’s exclusive jurisdiction to regulate… Prediction markets.
