King County Superior Court Judge John McHale issued a preliminary injunction this week ordering Kalshi to halt sports, elections, politics, entertainment, tech, and science wagers for Washington state users. Kalshi has until August 19 to implement an IP address and residency-based geofence, and until September 2 to deploy a multi-source geofencing solution.
The core legal problem is simple: Kalshi is not licensed by Washington's Gambling Commission and is not registered to do business in the state. McHale found that Kalshi ads claiming 'legal betting' in Washington are likely to mislead reasonable consumers, a finding that cuts directly against Kalshi's broader argument that federal commodity trading rules shield it from state gambling law.
The full court order is worth reading because the geofencing timeline and the scope of covered wager categories reveal how aggressively Washington is defining gambling, and how much of Kalshi's business now depends on sports contracts specifically. This case will set a precedent other state attorneys general are watching.
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