CFTC Abuses Emergency Authority to Keep Gambling Platform Kalshi Online in New York
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced late yesterday it had exercised its “emergency authority” in response to a “market emergency” in response to a complaint by KalshiEX. KalshiEX’s complaint to the CFTC comes a month after a federal court denied Kalshi’s arguments aimed at preventing the New York Gaming Commission from regulating Kalshi’s gaming activities, and days after the New York Attorney General’s Office accused the company of running an illegal gambling operation in the state, and sought to shutter the company’s operations in the state.
In response, Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, issued the following statement:
“The CFTC’s lawlessness on behalf of well-connected gambling interests is outrageous and must be stopped. As states across the country have begun to take action against illegal gambling companies like Kalshi, the CFTC’s actions to protect these companies is a massive overreach.
“After the federal court rejected gambling platform Kalshi’s request to continue offering gambling products to New Yorkers while the state challenged their legality, the CFTC has swooped in, declaring a phony emergency, and issued an order allowing Kalshi to defy federal courts and a U.S. state. The Commodity Exchange Act should not permit such gambling platforms, and until there is reasonable and lawful regulation at the federal level, states should be the ones—not the CFTC—making the decisions on how to regulate gambling.”
# # #