A decade after Nevada fought each day fantasy corporations, it is deja vu with Kalshi

More than 10 years in the past, many of the Las Vegas Review-Journal sportswriters had been in a panic. My story on state gaming regulators banning each day fantasy sports activities had simply been posted when sports activities writers surrounded my desk. “What about my fantasy this weekend?” was the collective cry. I do not assume of us are panicking in the identical manner about Kalshi being placed on ice for the subsequent two weeks.

Less than a day after the Nevada Gaming Control Board informed each day fantasy sports activities web sites DraftKings and FanDuel they had been violating state legislation by permitting prospects to create groups of real-world NFL gamers and use their statistics in a contest for cash, the businesses pulled the plug on their operations.

That was in October 2015.

More than a decade later, Nevada is in an identical battle with prediction markets. Gaming regulators, as they did a decade in the past, say they’re rooting out a bootleg type of sports activities wagering. But not like the each day fantasy operators, Kalshi and different corporations have not walked away quietly. 

Lawsuits in Nevada and almost two dozen states are winding their manner by the system. 

Gaming authorities stated prediction markets aren’t taking part in truthful by skipping Nevada’s licensing course of. Kalshi is not paying Nevada’s 6.75 p.c tax on gross gaming income, for instance.

Former Control Board Chairman Kirk Hendrick, who filed the preliminary cease and desist order towards Kalshi on March 4, 2025, informed The Nevada Independent on Monday he is pissed off by how Kalshi is utilizing the authorized course of to pull its heels.

“One day is too long for prediction companies to be violating Nevada’s right to regulate what is clearly sports wagering,” Hendrick stated. “One day is too long for those companies to avoid state investigations, licensing, regulatory safeguards and appropriate taxes. Certainly, the court process takes time. But ultimately, the activity will be deemed sports wagering within Nevada’s historic rights.”

Several prediction market operators, together with Polymarket, Coinbase and Robinhood, exited or restricted their occasion contract choices in Nevada below regulatory stress.

Last week, Carson City District Judge Jason Woodbury granted the state a 14-day restraining order towards Kalshi, which took greater than 24 hours to drag the plug on Nevada. But the corporate was bitter about lacking out on the March Madness school basketball tournaments and the opening of Major League Baseball’s season.

“The situation is unprecedented — Nevada is currently the only state with temporary restrictions due to a court order,” Kalshi wrote in an email to customers on Saturday. “We disagree with those restrictions, but as a law-abiding company, we’re following them.”

Kalshi has a preliminary injunction listening to April 3 in Carson City to attempt to get again into the sport in Nevada. However, a listening to on the U.S. ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on April 16 in San Francisco may both add extra readability or extra confusion to the problem.

Reno-based gaming legal professional A.G. Burnett understands the stress that Gaming Control Board Chairman Mike Dreitzer and gaming regulators throughout the nation are dealing with, given the onslaught of stress introduced by Kalshi and different prediction markets. Burnett was the management board chairman who introduced the stop and desist order towards the each day fantasy sports activities corporations in 2015.

“This is similar to what we faced in 2015,” stated Burnett, now a accomplice with the legislation agency McDonald Carano. “As a regulator, your job is to protect the state.”

He stated the board had the legal professional basic’s workplace analyze the legal guidelines and each day fantasy enterprise fashions, figuring out the exercise constituted sports activities betting.

“It happens all the time. Someone comes in with a new product or a new idea, and the board has to determine if it constitutes gambling and requires licensing,” Burnett stated. “That’s what is going on here with prediction markets.”

Meanwhile, Florida-based gaming legal professional Daniel Wallach, who has been following prediction market authorized battles all through the U.S., stated Nevada now has a “nuclear option” up its sleeve — the Legislature’s passage final 12 months of SB256, which permits state courts to impose stiffer fines past the $50,000 penalty that unlawful playing operators confronted if convicted of violating the state’s on-line gaming legal guidelines. 

“The statute applies to all unlicensed gambling and allows for the disgorgement of any profits associated with the activity,” Wallach stated in an interview Tuesday. “In Nevada, that’s pretty low-hanging fruit given the law is already on the books.”

He added that the legislation places Nevada in a stronger place than Arizona, which filed criminal charges towards Kalshi, however would not have the stiff penalties protecting unlicensed playing.

Wallach expects Nevada gaming regulators to prevail within the upcoming state courtroom hearings, on condition that the decide has already dominated in favor of the regulators.

Dreitzer, who took over for Hendrick when he retired from the place final summer season, declined to remark straight on the decide’s ruling final week. He did inform The Indy in a press release that “prediction markets, to the extent they facilitate unlicensed gambling, are illegal in Nevada, and we have a statutory duty to protect the public.”

A spokeswoman for Kalshi declined to touch upon the litigation in Nevada. The firm and different prediction markets have lengthy argued they’re regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and never topic to Nevada’s regulatory course of.

However, on Monday, Kalshi founder Tarek Mansour criticized federal legislation introduced by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) that will ban prediction markets and different CFTC-regulated entities from itemizing sports activities and casino-style sport contracts. On Tuesday, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) added her identify as a sponsor.

Posting on X, Mansour blamed the “casino lobby” for pushing laws that he stated “isn’t about protecting consumers; it’s about protecting monopolies.”

Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), who launched comparable laws within the House final month, stated Monday the Senate invoice is “further evidence that awareness of the threats posed by unregulated sports betting is growing.”

IGT to shed some 700 positions following final 12 months’s merger with Everi

Slot machine large IGT introduced Monday it was decreasing its worldwide workforce by 10 p.c, eliminating some 700 jobs globally. The firm didn’t disclose what number of of its Nevada staff had been a part of the layoffs.

IGT is anticipated to element the job reductions in Nevada in a letter filed by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act with the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation. 

In a memo to staff, IGT CEO Hector Fernandez stated the transfer was a part of a overview course of to strengthen the group’s construction. 

Last 12 months, IGT merged with rival on line casino gear supplier Everi Holdings in a $6.3 billion deal funded by hedge fund large Apollo Global Management, making the enterprise a privately held entity.

“As part of that review, we also had to make some difficult decisions about how our organization is structured, and this work has led to a difficult but necessary step,” Fernandez wrote. “This reduction is required to align resources with business priorities and streamline operations, ensuring we are best-positioned for future growth.”

Fernandez, who joined IGT in December, stated the motion had nothing to do with a person’s job efficiency. The job eliminations are being performed as a result of the merger led to overstaffing in a number of firm areas. Fernandez stated he took “full responsibility” for the job discount.

What I’m studying

🧳 Downtown Las Vegas leaders discuss tourism, gaming and competition with the Strip — Evan Leake, Fox 5 News

Casino operators say the decline in tourism downtown is overstated.

😋 Renderings showcase plans for exclusive clubs at A’s Las Vegas ballpark — Matthew Seeman, News 3 Las Vegas

The A’s, Aramark Sports + Entertainment and restaurateur Will Guidara unveiled plans for the “Athletic Club” for the $2 billion ballpark.

⚾ Miami sees surge in business travelers during World Baseball Classic — David Broughton, Sports Business Journal

Vegas tourism leaders stated they wish to deliver the occasion to the brand new A’s stadium in 2029 or 2030.

News, notes and quotes

🎰 Global Gaming Women have a good time tenth anniversary

Global Gaming Women, a nonprofit group created to assist girls’s growth within the gaming trade, is celebrating its tenth 12 months. The group has greater than 9,000 members throughout 70 nations. Global Gaming Women supplied greater than $840,000 in academic scholarships, facilitated 14 in-person coaching applications and grew its peer-to-peer {and professional} mentorship applications. “As we celebrate [the organization’s] accomplishments and journey to its current state, we are laser-focused on scaling our reach and impact while developing the next generation of women in gaming,” stated Siobhan Lane, an govt vice chairman with Light & Wonder and president of Global Gaming Women’s board.

📚 Daughter of Nevada on line casino proprietor authors enterprise guide for ladies

Alexis Meruelo, a enterprise govt, investor and girls’s management advocate, wrote Getting Ready for Power, a guide that gives a three-phase framework for ladies seeking to advance their enterprise careers. Meruelo is the daughter of Alex Meruelo, proprietor of the Sahara Las Vegas and Grand Sierra Resort in Reno. In the guide, which is being launched in April, Alexis Meruelo affords recommendation to girls enterprise leaders who know they’re able to extra however have been conditioned to query their readiness. “Now more than ever before, it is time for women to get more women into positions of power,” she stated.