NY Gaming Commission Takes Kalshi Subpoena Fight to Court
The New York State Gaming Commission wants a Manhattan court to make Kalshi hand over records. According to the regulator, it's been chasing those records since the summer. A verified petition filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, names Kalshi Inc. and KalshiEX LLC as respondents. Letitia James's office is representing the Commission. The court's electronic filing system logged the petition on October 22, 2026. It went public a day later.
Four categories of material sit behind the subpoenas. Records on Kalshi's sports-event contracts. Information on products offered to New Yorkers under 21. Advertising that describes the company's products as wagers or bets. And details of ownership and corporate structure.
That age request is the sharpest of the four. Licensed mobile sportsbooks in New York may only take customers 21 and over, yet the Attorney General's July lawsuit alleged that users aged 18 to 20 can trade on Kalshi. Under-21 records would show the Commission how many younger New Yorkers have been trading sports contracts outside the licensing system.
Then there's the advertising demand, which cuts at the heart of the legal fight. Kalshi has consistently argued its sports contracts are financial instruments overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not bets. Marketing material that calls those products wagers would sit awkwardly beside that argument. The Commission knows it.
Why does the regulator want the documents? The petition is direct on that point. It says the information is needed to determine whether to issue civil penalties against Kalshi and others for violations of the Racing Law, the statute governing sports wagering in New York, which requires operators to hold a Commission licence. The filing also accuses Kalshi of having operated a massive enterprise in New York designed to enable individuals to place wagers.
The subpoenas went out on July 31, 2026, under Section 104(7) of the Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering and Breeding Law, with a return date of August 14. They followed a setback for Kalshi in federal court. On July 7, District Judge Analisa Torres of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Kalshi's motion for a preliminary injunction against the Commission and its officials, leaving the state free to pursue enforcement. Nearly three months on, the Commission says it still hasn't received what it asked for.
Per the petition, Kalshi has flatly refused to produce any documents in response to certain requests. It also refuses to comply with key subpoena requests necessary to assess the scope of its operations in New York. Where the company has answered, the Commission calls those responses insufficient. The regulator told the court it will be irreparably harmed if Kalshi is allowed to defy lawfully issued subpoenas. No hearing date or ruling had been reported at the time of writing. Kalshi had not issued a public response.
This petition is the latest move in a wider campaign. On July 31, James and Governor Kathy Hochul announced a lawsuit accusing Kalshi of running an unlicensed gambling operation. It seeks to halt the company's New York business, force forfeiture of its gains, secure restitution for consumers and impose fines equal to three times those gains. The petition puts the claimed damages at $36,000,000,000.00 at minimum pending accounting. "No matter what they call themselves, prediction markets like Kalshi are gambling platforms, plain and simple," James said at the time. Hochul said Kalshi has chosen to ignore New York's gaming laws, which exist to protect consumers. The state sued Polymarket in September as well.
Kalshi is fighting on several fronts. Utah sued the operator in state court this week, asking it to geofence the state and seeking to recover up to $61.2 million in fees it allegedly collected. Connecticut has also gone to court to ban sports-event contracts in the state. Ohio gave its gaming licensees an October 30 deadline to cut ties with prediction market operators. Behind all of it sits the same unresolved question: whether federal commodities law leaves room for states to apply their gambling statutes to contracts listed on CFTC-registered exchanges. The CFTC sued New York in April seeking a declaratory judgment that it has exclusive authority over event contracts. In August it used emergency authority to order Kalshi to keep operating in the state. Chairman Michael Selig said Congress did not intend for derivatives exchanges to be regulated under a patchwork of state gaming laws. Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour has made the same point publicly, saying the company operates under federal rules.
For now the next step lies with the New York County Supreme Court, which will decide whether Kalshi must produce the records. If compliance is ordered, the Commission would gain a detailed view of how Kalshi's sports contracts have been marketed and sold in the state, including to customers under 21. Licensed New York sportsbooks operate under strict rules on age verification, advertising and taxation. The regulator's interest in how an unlicensed rival has handled those same areas is unlikely to fade while the jurisdictional fight continues.