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# Ninth Circuit Revives California Tribes’ Kalshi Challenge
- URL: https://www.theamericanquorum.com/state-news-california-2026-09-17-b/
- Published: 2026-09-17T05:45:28.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-17T05:45:28.000Z
- Description: The Ninth Circuit ruled two California tribes are likely to show Kalshi sports-event contracts on tribal lands violate federal gaming law, reviving their request for preliminary relief while leaving further findings to a district judge.
- Author: News Desk
- Tags: State News, California

A federal appeals court has revived two California tribes’ effort to stop sports-event contracts from being offered on their lands, ruling that the tribes are likely to show the products violate federal Indian gaming law.

In a [38-page opinion filed September 16](https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2026/09/16/25-7504.pdf?ref=theamericanquorum.com), a unanimous Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed part of a lower-court order that had denied a preliminary injunction to Blue Lake Rancheria and Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians. The case concerns contracts offered by Kalshi and distributed by Robinhood that pay according to the outcome of sports events.

The panel did not impose a statewide shutdown. Instead, it sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco to consider the remaining requirements for preliminary relief, including irreparable harm, the balance of equities and the public interest. The court affirmed the rejection of a separate Lanham Act claim concerning Kalshi’s advertising.

The core holding is significant for tribal authority. The judges concluded that a sports contract entered from tribal territory is “located on Indian lands” for purposes of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, or IGRA. They also found that the contracts qualify as class III gaming and were not authorized by the tribes’ gaming ordinances or the federal procedures that govern gaming on their lands.

IGRA establishes the federal framework for gaming on Indian lands. The [National Indian Gaming Commission’s statutory materials](https://www.nigc.gov/office-of-general-counsel/laws-and-regulations/indian-gaming-regulatory-act/?ref=theamericanquorum.com) explain that class III gaming generally operates through tribal-state compacts or federally prescribed procedures and approved tribal ordinances. In this dispute, the tribes argued that nontribal companies could not bypass that regulatory structure simply by describing a wager as a derivatives contract.

Kalshi had argued that the Commodity Exchange Act gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission exclusive authority over trades on its federally regulated exchange. The Ninth Circuit rejected the idea that this displaced IGRA. Its opinion said the two laws answer different questions: the commodities statute governs covered derivatives trading, while IGRA regulates class III gaming activity on Indian lands.

The ruling’s immediate reach is narrower than a ban throughout California. It addresses activity initiated on the lands of the two plaintiff tribes and leaves the district court to decide whether an injunction should issue after evaluating the remaining factors. Still, the legal reasoning could shape similar disputes involving federally recognized tribes and online prediction markets.

[Reuters reported](https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-appeals-court-blocks-kalshi-offering-event-contracts-native-american-lands-2026-09-16/?ref=theamericanquorum.com) that Kalshi may appeal and that Robinhood is evaluating its options. The opinion also notes that California joined 26 other states and the District of Columbia in supporting the tribes’ position. That coalition argued that treating sports contracts as federally protected derivatives could weaken state and tribal authority over gambling.

For users, the decision does not resolve the national debate over prediction markets or make every Kalshi contract unlawful. It gives these California tribes a renewed path to obtain preliminary relief for sports-event contracts accessed from their lands while the underlying litigation continues.