New York Gaming Commission Asks Court To Force Kalshi To Comply With Subpoenas

The New York State Gaming Commission has asked a Manhattan court to force Kalshi to hand over records on its sports-event contracts, its users under 21 and its advertising, as the regulator weighs civil penalties against the prediction market operator.

New York’s gaming regulator has opened a new front in its long-running dispute with Kalshi, asking a state court to compel the prediction market operator to comply with investigative subpoenas it says have gone largely unanswered since the summer.

Kalshi Inc. and KalshiEX LLC are named as respondents in the verified petition, which the Commission lodged with the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. The Commission is represented by the office of Attorney General Letitia James. The court’s electronic filing system logged the petition as received on October 22, 2026.

The filing became public on October 23, when sports betting attorney Daniel Wallach shared pages from the petition on X.

What the Commission wants from Kalshi

The subpoenas at the center of the petition seek four broad categories of information. As described in the pages Wallach posted, the Commission wants records on Kalshi’s sports-event contracts, on products offered to New Yorkers under the age of 21, on advertising that describes Kalshi’s products as wagers or bets, and on the company’s ownership and corporate structure.

The age question is a pointed one. New York’s licensed mobile sportsbooks may only accept customers aged 21 and over, and the Attorney General’s July lawsuit alleged that users aged 18 to 20 can trade on Kalshi. Records on under-21 users would give the Commission a direct view of how many younger New Yorkers have been trading sports contracts outside the state’s licensing regime.

The advertising requests go to the heart of the legal dispute. Kalshi has consistently argued that its sports contracts are financial instruments overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), not bets. Marketing material that calls those products wagers would sit awkwardly alongside that argument.

The petition is blunt about why the Commission says it needs the documents. It states that the information is required to “determine whether to issue civil penalties against Kalshi and others for violations of the Racing Law,” the statute that governs sports wagering in New York and requires operators to hold a Commission license. The petition also accuses Kalshi of having “operated a massive enterprise in New York designed to enable individuals to place wagers.”

Subpoenas dating back to the summer

The Commission’s subpoenas were issued 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 significant 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.

Almost three months on, the Commission says Kalshi has not given it what it asked for. According to the petition, Kalshi “has flatly refused to produce any documents” in response to certain requests and “refuses to comply with key Subpoena requests necessary to assess the scope of Kalshi’s operations in New York.” Where the company has responded, the Commission describes those answers as insufficient.

The regulator argues that delay carries a cost of its own, telling the court it “will be irreparably harmed if Kalshi is permitted to defy the lawfully issued Subpoenas.” It is asking the court to order compliance. No hearing date or ruling had been reported at the time of writing, and Kalshi had not issued a public response to the petition.

New York’s widening case against prediction markets

The subpoena petition is the latest in a series of actions New York has taken against prediction markets this year. On July 31, Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul announced a lawsuit accusing Kalshi of running an unlicensed gambling operation, seeking to halt its New York business, force the forfeiture of its gains, secure restitution for consumers and impose fines equal to three times those gains. Decrypt reported that the petition put 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, while Hochul said that “Kalshi has chosen to ignore New York’s gaming laws, which exist to protect consumers.”

The state has since turned its attention to Polymarket as well, filing suit against that platform in September. Together, the cases make New York one of the most aggressive states in the country on prediction markets, alongside the likes of Ohio, which recently gave its gaming licensees an October 30 deadline to cut ties with prediction market operators.

Kalshi is fighting on several fronts at once. This week, Utah sued the operator in state court, 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 in a bid to ban sports-event contracts in the state.

The table below summarizes where the main challenges stand.

Who regulates event contracts: the federal dispute

Behind every one of these state actions sits the same unresolved question: whether federal commodities law leaves any room for states to apply their gambling statutes to contracts listed on CFTC-registered exchanges.

The CFTC has made its position clear. In April, it sued the State of New York in federal court in Manhattan. It is asking for a ruling that event contracts fall solely under federal oversight, and for a permanent order stopping New York from enforcing its rules against CFTC-registered firms. The agency had already brought similar suits against Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois.

“New York is the latest state to ignore federal law,” CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said when the suit was announced, adding that “the CFTC will not allow overzealous state governments to undermine the agency’s longstanding authority over these markets.”

The agency went further in August. After New York sued Kalshi, the CFTC used its emergency authority to order the exchange to keep operating in the state, with Selig saying that “Congress did not intend for derivatives exchanges to be regulated under a patchwork of state gaming laws.”

Kalshi’s leadership has made the same case publicly. Speaking after the Attorney General’s lawsuit was filed, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said the company is operating under federal rules.

That federal case has not stopped New York from pressing ahead in its own courts, and the subpoena petition shows the Commission building an evidentiary record for potential penalties while the jurisdictional battle plays out. Separately, Polymarket has taken its dispute with Ohio to constitutional grounds, adding to the growing pile of litigation that could eventually push the issue toward the Supreme Court.

What happens next

For now, the next step lies with the New York County Supreme Court, which will decide whether Kalshi must produce the records the Commission has requested. If the court orders compliance, the Commission would gain access to detailed information on how Kalshi’s sports contracts have been marketed and sold in the state, including to customers under 21.

Whatever the outcome, the petition underlines how far apart the two sides remain. Kalshi maintains that federal oversight by the CFTC governs its business, while New York continues to treat sports-event contracts as wagering that requires a state license. With licensed sportsbooks in New York operating 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.

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