A questionable prediction market platform founder stated his company responses to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) only.

- Mansour said during an interview Friday with TechCrunch he isn't "necessarily very worried" about 5 cease-and-desist letters over his sports-outcome markets.

• Kalshi, which presently uses forecast markets in 50 U.S. states, states it's regulated by the CFTC, not state regulators, and does not need a gaming license.
• The Kalshi creator believes gambling establishment lobbyists lag the orders for his site to stop running in legal sports betting states.
  
  Kalshi's Tarek Mansour mentioned during an interview with TechCrunch on Friday he isn't "always extremely worried" about cease-and-desist orders he got from five U.S. states. Those jurisdictions argue his sports-event outcome markets, which are similar to sportsbook odds, go versus these states' legal sports wagering regulations and require a license to operate.
  
  Mansour doesn't see that stopping him from offering his markets in all 50 states.
  
  "We are actually like a financial exchange, but the underlying trading is events," Mansour said. "The CFTC is our regulator. If the CFTC informs us to stop, we will absolutely stop. If they don't, then we won't."
  
  Mansour stated he received cease-and-desist letters from Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, and Montana, but Kalshi is under "special jurisdiction." He compared Kalshi's scenario to grain futures trading in Kansas, where state law prohibits it however federal law lets it occur.
  
  "The state law doesn't truly use when you're a federally regulated exchange," Mansour stated.
  
  'Not pleased about this'
  
  Kalshi feels so highly about that position that it filed lawsuits against Nevada and New Jersey to continue offering sports-event agreements in all 50 U.S. states.
  
  "The reason states are sending us these cease-and-desists is because there are massive casino lobbyists not pleased about this," Mansour stated.
  
  The CFTC hasn't explicitly mentioned it's in favor of sports-outcome markets, but hasn't asked Kalshi to stop using them, either.
  
  Mansour argues monetary derivatives are different than the real definition of gaming since they validate the marketplace by discovering prices and handling danger. The company's founder stated it resembles states deciding the New York Stock Exchange can't operate in their jurisdictions without a video gaming license.
  
  "We do not fall under that model. There hasn't been a single monetary derivative set up in the U.S. or otherwise that hasn't been called gambling at the start. It's consistently the same thing," Mansour stated.
  
  How it started
  
  The CFTC initially obstructed Kalshi from offering election result markets in 2024, however the company received a beneficial judgment from federal judges to let users position agreements on numerous events, like the governmental race.
  
  Kalski began diving into sports forecast previously this year with Super Bowl LIX and broadened with March Madness, which generated over $200 million in agreements during the NCAA competition's first weekend. Kalshi uses its sports markets through the popular trading platform Robinhood, which likewise receieved cease-and-desist letters.
  
  "It has an economic utility behind the speculative activity, which's what makes it a financial instrument and not a gambling instrument," Mansour stated.
  
  Handling Nevada
  
  The Nevada Gaming Control Panel was the first state regulator to do something about it versus Kalshi when it informed the platform in early March to stop running unlicensed gaming. Mansour said Friday the Nevada sports wagering regulatory company released the cease-and-desist letter openly before Kalshi received it.