Prediction Markets in Ohio: Legal Status

Status as of November 6, 2026

Ohio's sports gaming law is R.C. Chapter 3775. No one may operate or conduct sports gaming in Ohio without a license from the Ohio Casino Control Commission (R.C. 3775.03(A)(1)), "sports gaming" means "the business of accepting wagers on sporting events" (R.C. 3775.01(O)(1)), and R.C. 3775.02(A) gives the Commission jurisdiction over all persons conducting or participating in it, with power to license, regulate, investigate and penalize them.

The Commission's position, set out in letters of March 31, 2025 and August 25, 2025, is that offering event contracts on sporting events to people in Ohio without that license violates Ohio law. Every Ohio document located on prediction markets, those letters and the court filings that followed them, concerns sports-event contracts only.

Kalshi: the Commission's cease-and-desist letter of March 31, 2025 is addressed to Kalshi. Kalshi sued to stop the Commission from enforcing Ohio law against its exchange; the Southern District of Ohio denied a preliminary injunction on March 9, 2026, and on September 25, 2026 the Sixth Circuit affirmed that denial and remanded for further proceedings. No final judgment has been located. The full Kalshi history is on the Kalshi legal page.

Robinhood: Robinhood is a broker, not one of the venues whose prices this site prints, but it is the one firm whose own filing describes an agreement with the Commission. Its quarterly report says that on October 26, 2026 it agreed to stop offering new sports-related event contracts in Ohio by November 2, 2026, in exchange for the Commission's agreement to refrain from enforcing state gaming laws while the prediction-market appeals are pending. Its help page, read November 6, 2026, says Ohio residents can't open new sports event contracts as of November 2.

Polymarket: no Ohio-specific court filing, Commission order or letter, statute or platform notice naming Polymarket could be read as of November 6, 2026, so this page draws no conclusion about it.

Federal guidance: on November 5, 2026 the CFTC issued an interpretation that geographic access restrictions inside the United States are inconsistent with its impartial-access rule, Regulation 38.151(b). It is federal guidance on the duties of federally regulated exchanges. It does not itself overturn an Ohio statute or a court order, and whether federal law preempts Ohio's law is a question for the courts.

What the court filings show

R.C. 3775.02 took effect on March 23, 2022, enacted by House Bill 29 of the 134th General Assembly. Nearly three years later, on January 22, 2025, Kalshi self-certified sports-event contracts and began listing them, as the Sixth Circuit's opinion records.

About ten weeks later the Commission acted. Its letter of March 31, 2025, signed by its executive director and filed as an exhibit to Kalshi's complaint, says that "by offering 'event contracts' on sporting events to citizens located within the State of Ohio, without a sports gaming license," Kalshi was violating Ohio law, and asked for written notice of compliance by April 14, 2025. On August 25, 2025 the Commission wrote to every Ohio sports gaming licensee that offering sporting event contracts in Ohio without a sports gaming license violates Ohio law, and that a licensee's choice to offer them, or to partner with a company that does, would weigh in its suitability review. On October 6, 2025 it told Kalshi's lawyers it was "unpersuaded that Ohio law is preempted by federal law as Kalshi contends" and expected compliance by October 20, 2025.

Kalshi filed suit the next day, October 7, 2025, in the Southern District of Ohio (No. 2:25-cv-01165) against the Commission, its executive director and members, and the Ohio Attorney General, together with a motion for a preliminary injunction. Chief Judge Sarah D. Morrison's Opinion and Order of March 9, 2026 ends: "Because the Court finds that Kalshi has not carried its burden to establish that the circumstances demand such extraordinary relief, the Motion for Preliminary Injunction is DENIED." Kalshi appealed the next day; she denied an injunction pending appeal on March 20, 2026, and on March 27, 2026 the parties jointly asked her to stay the case while the appeal ran.

Two further Ohio proceedings are described in a complaint that Underdog Exchange DCM, Inc. and UDM, LLC filed in the Northern District of Ohio on September 8, 2026 (No. 1:26-cv-02169). That complaint states that on April 14, 2026 the Commission issued Kalshi a notice of intent to impose a penalty or fine of $5 million (Case No. 2026-SGR-001), and that on June 29, 2026 Kalshi challenged the proceeding in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas (KalshiEX LLC v. Morrison, No. 26 CV 006013). Underdog's own suit asks the federal court to stop the Attorney General and the Commission from enforcing Ohio's gambling and sports gaming laws against its event contracts.

The Sixth Circuit heard Kalshi's appeal on July 30, 2026 alongside a Tennessee case and decided both on September 25, 2026: "we affirm the Southern District of Ohio's denial of Kalshi's motion for a preliminary injunction, vacate the Middle District of Tennessee's grant of Kalshi's motion, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion." The panel held that Kalshi had not shown its sports-event contracts are "swaps" within the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction and, in the alternative, that the Commodity Exchange Act does not preempt Ohio's or Tennessee's gambling laws. On the impartial-access rule, it wrote that the regulation "is about economic rather than geographical impartiality."

What changed in October and November 2026

Robinhood's quarterly report, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 28, 2026, says its derivatives unit "received a cease and desist letter from the Ohio Casino Control Commission demanding that RHD stop offering sports-related event contracts in Ohio" on October 2, 2026, and that on October 26 it "agreed to cease offering new sports-related event contracts in Ohio by November 2, 2026 in exchange for the Commission's agreement to refrain from enforcing its state gaming laws during the pendency of RHD's and other prediction-market operators' appeals in the Sixth Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States." Its help page, read November 6, 2026, carries the result: "As of November 2, 2026, Ohio residents can't open new sports event contracts."

On November 5, 2026 the CFTC issued press release 9323-26 and an interpretation of Regulation 38.151(b), approved by the Commission and effective on Federal Register publication, which had not happened by November 6. The interpretation says the Commodity Exchange Act and the Commission's rules "generally do not permit a DCM to limit access based on the location of an otherwise eligible market participant within the United States," and that exchanges "are responsible for ensuring that intermediaries are not impeding" impartial access. The release says exchanges "must cease domestic geographic restrictions that violate the Impartial Access Requirements within 30 days, or else submit to the Division of Market Oversight" an explanation, and should see within 30 days that intermediaries comply, or explain why that is not feasible. The interpretation names no company and no state, and nothing located says how it bears on Robinhood's agreement with the Commission; this page draws no conclusion on that.

What is not documented

No Ohio-specific primary document naming Polymarket could be read as of November 6, 2026, so this page draws no conclusion about it; the search is repeated on November 20, 2026. News reports describe Commission letters of October 2, 2026 to Polymarket's U.S. exchange and other companies, and a federal suit by that exchange in the Southern District of Ohio. Only Robinhood's own filing describes one of those letters, so this page reports Robinhood's and no other.

Some Ohio documents could not be read on November 6, 2026. The public mirror of the federal dockets now requires a login, so this page does not report docket entries after the documents it cites: it does not say whether the Sixth Circuit has issued its mandate, ruled on any request for rehearing, or whether the district case has resumed. The Commission's and the governor's websites returned error pages. The April 14, 2026 penalty notice and the Franklin County case are known only from Underdog's complaint, so this page does not say how either proceeding stands.

What happens next

The release gives exchanges 30 days. It does not say whether they run from November 5, 2026 or from Federal Register publication; counted from the release date, they end on December 5, 2026. By then, under the release, each exchange is to end its domestic geographic restrictions or explain to the Division of Market Oversight why it cannot, and do the same for its intermediaries.

In Kalshi's district case, the parties' joint motion of March 27, 2026 asked for a stay pending appeal and proposed a joint status report within 21 days after the Sixth Circuit's mandate. The Robinhood agreement, as its filing describes it, runs while the appeals are pending. Each of these, and the Polymarket record, is checked again at the next review, on November 20, 2026.

What this page does not do

This page is not legal advice. It does not say whether any person in Ohio may lawfully trade any contract on any venue, it offers no view on what any court, the Commission or the CFTC ought to decide, and it says nothing about how prediction-market proceeds are taxed. Every Ohio document cited concerns sports-event contracts; contracts on elections, the economy or anything else are outside what these documents address.

The page is reviewed every 14 days and after any filing, order, Commission action or CFTC action, and it shows its last review date. A correction is made on this page and dated. The disclosure page sets out the site's relationships, of which there are none.