Baltimore filed lawsuits on Aug. 13 in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City against Kalshi, Polymarket and their affiliated companies, accusing the prediction-market operators of running illegal, unlicensed sports-betting products and misleading consumers about their legal status.
The complaints say the companies violate Baltimore’s Consumer Protection Ordinance by presenting wagers as “event contracts” or prediction-market trades even though, in the city’s view, they function as sports bets under Maryland law. They say residents can bet on game winners, point spreads, point totals, player statistics and other propositions commonly offered by licensed sportsbooks.
Baltimore is asking for civil penalties, injunctive relief, restitution for affected consumers, disgorgement of ill-gotten profits and other relief allowed by law. It also says the businesses created a false or misleading impression that their offerings were lawful and properly regulated, exposing young adults and people with gambling addictions to financial harm.
The filing says Maryland allows online sports wagering only through a licensing, oversight and taxation regime run by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency and the Maryland Sports Wagering Application Review Commission, and that participants must be 21 or older. It alleges that Kalshi and Polymarket offered sports wagering in Baltimore without the required Maryland licences, and that Kalshi allowed 18-year-olds to bet on sports on its platform.
As covered in June, Kalshi was already fighting a separate legal battle in Illinois over state attempts to regulate its sports event contracts. Baltimore’s complaint also says Maryland regulators sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist letter in April 2025, and that Judge Adam Abelson later denied Kalshi’s bid for preliminary relief, saying Maryland’s sports-wagering laws and the Commodity Exchange Act can operate in tandem.
Kalshi told Sports Betting Dime that people use regulated prediction markets because they are “neutral, fair and transparent marketplaces,” and said it had spent years getting regulated by the federal government and would defend the claims in court.
Baltimore says the products are gambling in all but name, and that they should be treated as such under city and state law.
