Baltimore City filed separate lawsuits against Kalshi and Polymarket in Baltimore City Circuit Court on Thursday, alleging the prediction-market operators’ sports wagering features violate the city’s consumer protection ordinance while neither platform holds a Maryland Lottery & Gaming Control Agency licence as a sports betting contractor.
The complaint against Kalshi also names three partner firms – Robinhood, Webull and Coinbase – that offer the platform’s sports-related event contracts. Both complaints accuse the operators of misleading and unfair trade practices, arguing they fail to warn consumers of the extent of insider trading and manipulation that could affect contract outcomes.
The city further alleges the platforms create a false impression that their sports wagers are lawful in Baltimore. As evidence of the regulatory gap, the filings point to Kalshi and Polymarket’s minimum user age of 18, against Maryland’s 21-and-over threshold for licensed sports betting.
Baltimore is asking the court for an injunction barring the companies from operating unauthorized sports wagering platforms in the city and from accepting transactions from city residents. The suits also seek civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation of the consumer protection ordinance, per day.
Fourth Circuit Appeal Still Pending
The lawsuits arrive as Kalshi’s separate challenge to Maryland’s gaming regulator remains unresolved. The state gambling agency issued a cease-and-desist order last year calling Kalshi’s sports event contracts indistinguishable from sports bets, and a federal judge denied Kalshi’s request for a preliminary injunction in August 2025, allowing the agency to proceed with enforcement.
Kalshi appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the agency agreed to hold off on enforcing its licensing rules while that appeal is pending. A decision from the Fourth Circuit has not yet been issued. Crypto.com, which received a similar cease-and-desist order over its own prediction market, sued Maryland as well, though that case is paused pending Kalshi’s outcome.
Kalshi and Polymarket Push Back
Kalshi characterized the Baltimore filings as political theater by Mayor Brandon Scott and said the action was an effort to relitigate a matter already before the Fourth Circuit. The company said it was operating lawfully under the exclusive jurisdiction of its federal regulator and would defend the claims in court. Polymarket did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Record.
City Solicitor Ebony Thompson said the companies could not avoid Baltimore’s consumer protections by repackaging gambling or claiming that federal regulation placed them beyond local law, according to WBAL-TV. Mayor Brandon Scott said Baltimore would not allow multibillion-dollar companies to put profits over people and harm communities through illegal gambling, the report said.
Part of a Broader Consumer Protection Push
Baltimore’s law department is working with attorneys from DiCello Levitt on both new complaints, the same firm representing the city in its litigation against DraftKings and FanDuel over alleged targeting of problem gamblers, as well as against online sweepstakes casinos. The dispute over whether sports-tied contracts constitute gambling or federally regulated derivatives remains central to Kalshi’s appeal before the Fourth Circuit.
Source: The Daily Record
Renata Kovacs has spent the better part of a decade following the regulatory shifts and licensing battles that define how gambling markets open, close, and evolve across Europe and beyond. She came up through the legal and compliance side of the industry before shifting her focus to journalism and analysis, giving her a perspective that sits closer to the operator room than the press box. Her coverage tends to cut through the noise and get straight to what a regulatory change actually means for the businesses and players involved.