Calci sues to prevent the state of Minnesota from imposing America’s first prediction market ban

Calci has asked a federal judge to block Minnesota from implementing the nation’s first-ever prediction market ban, joining forces with President Donald Trump’s administration in a rapidly escalating regulatory battle against state governments.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Calci — America’s largest prediction market platform by trading volume — urged the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota to intervene and block the state from enforcing a recently passed law that makes creating, operating, or promoting prediction markets a criminal offense.

The law, signed by Gov. Tim Walz last week, is scheduled to go into effect on August 1.

Minnesota’s prediction market ban is the latest step in an all-out regulatory war between industry platforms and state governments over the future of the lucrative new sector.

red and blue The states both claim that predictive market bets on sports — and sometimes on politics and entertainment as well — constitute gambling bets under state jurisdiction. However, platforms like Kalshi claim that they should be regulated exclusively at the federal level, through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as event contracts.

The Trump administration has aggressively resorted to helping prediction market platforms in this fight. Just hours after Minnesota imposed its prediction market ban last week, the Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) made the announcement. File a lawsuit against Jurisdiction over the law, claiming that it illegally encroaches on federal jurisdiction. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed an application numerous additional Lawsuits against states trying to regulate prediction markets.

In the lawsuit filed this week, Calci followed the Trump administration’s lead, arguing that a ban in Minnesota would penalize federally permissible activity.

By August, Calci “will be deemed a felon in the State of Minnesota for offering certain event contracts on federally authorized DCM that are perfectly legal under federal law — as asserted by the federal agency with exclusive jurisdiction to make that determination,” the complaint says.

Last month, President Trump told reporters that he “never supports” prediction markets, after a US soldier was arrested for allegedly using one of the markets to make hundreds of thousands of dollars by betting on classified information.

Days later, however, Pres He came back These statements say: Decryption He knew people “in the prediction market business” who were “pretty happy” with the current trajectory of the industry. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., is an adviser to both Calci and its main competitor, Polymarket. Trump Jr. is also an investor in Polymarket.

On Tuesday, the president reiterated this position, He argues In a social media post, the CFTC should continue to push for exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets, calling state leaders who opposed the policy “scum.”