Five prediction-market platforms have agreed to remove sports event contracts for Ohio customers after the Ohio Casino Control Commission targeted 10 companies with cease-and-desist orders. Robinhood, Coinbase, Gemini, Moomoo Financial and Plus500US were identified as compliant, leaving half of the firms named in the action still without a final resolution.
The commission maintains that the contracts are illegal under Ohio law and warned of administrative action, civil and criminal proceedings, and financial penalties tied to revenue from Ohio customers. On Oct. 20, it also told licensed gaming operators and suppliers that work supporting unlicensed prediction platforms could put their own licences at risk, including market making, liquidity, integrity monitoring, data security and technology services.
The reports differ on Coinbase’s timing. GamblingNews said it had already complied, while InsideBitcoins said Coinbase’s Ohio shutdown was due by Nov. 13. Neither Robinhood nor Coinbase has disclosed how much of its prediction-market business came from Ohio customers, though the products had become a growing revenue line for both companies.
Polymarket and Underdog are continuing to contest Ohio’s application of state gambling law to sports event contracts. As we reported in October, Polymarket US sued Ohio officials over the state’s licensing regime, including requirements concerning physical presence and in-state servers, which it argues discriminate against interstate commerce.
Novig, ProphetX and Webull remained in discussions with the commission. The regulator counted five compliant operators as of Nov. 8, a figure expected to change once those negotiations conclude.
Ohio’s enforcement effort followed the Sixth Circuit’s September ruling in the Kalshi case, which found that Kalshi had not shown its sports event contracts met the statutory definition of swaps within the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s exclusive jurisdiction. The court also held that the Commodity Exchange Act did not expressly or impliedly preempt Ohio’s and Tennessee’s gambling laws, even if the contracts were swaps.
That ruling conflicts with the CFTC’s position in an Ohio amicus brief that event contracts traded on federally regulated exchanges are swaps subject to its exclusive authority. The agency has argued that state restrictions on sports contracts could endanger its wider jurisdiction over other event-contract and derivatives markets.
