Nevada Gaming Control Board Issues Another Warning About Sports Event Contracts
Posted on: November 30, 2025, 11:31h.
Last updated on: November 30, 2025, 11:31h.
- The Nevada Gaming Control Board considers sports event contracts as sports betting
- The gaming regulator is warning its licensees about sports event contracts
Following a key federal ruling, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) is again reminding its licensees about its opinion that online exchanges facilitating sports event contracts are engaged in unlicensed sports betting.
Last week, US District Judge Andrew Gordon sided with the NGCB in ruling that companies like Kalshi, Robinhood, and Crypto.com offering shares on outcomes involving sporting events are running unlawful gambling. The companies claim their contracts, including those involving sports, are financial instruments under federal law and therefore regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Gordon and the NGCB disagree. Following the landmark ruling, the NGCB, considered the gold standard of gaming regulation, issued another notice to its casinos, sportsbooks, and gaming licensees that they cannot have any relationship with such exchanges that continue to offer sports event contracts in Nevada without a state-issued license.
Licensees on Notice
The NGCB explains that while Robinhood and Crypto.com agreed to cease running sports event contracts in Nevada, Kalshi has not. Kalshi is appealing Gordon’s decision, something the NGCB says it will “vigorously oppose.”
The NGCB considers a sports event contract to constitute a wagering activity, regardless of whether the wagering occurs on an exchange regulated by the CFTC.
“Examples of event contracts that the Board specifically considers to be wagering subject to its jurisdiction include event contracts based on the outcome or partial outcome of any sporting or athletic event, or other selected events such as the World Series of Poker, the Oscars, Esports, and political elections (Sports and Other Event Contracts),” the NGCB notice explained. “Offerings for Sports and Other Events Contracts may be conducted in Nevada only if the offering entity possesses a nonrestricted gaming license with sports pool approval in Nevada and meets the other requirements for sports wagering, including, without limitation, wagering accounts and sports book systems.”
The NGCB warns that Nevada licensees without sports pool privileges that choose to offer sports event contracts or partners with a company doing so without an appropriate license, the Board “will consider these developments as it evaluates the suitability of the entity to maintain a Nevada gaming license.” The warning added that “engaging in unlawful sports wagering in another state or entering into a business relationship with another entity offering unlawful sports wagering in another state may call into question the good character and integrity of the licensee.”
Will States Follow?
Gordon’s ruling could be the start of the end for CFTC-regulated exchanges offering sports event contracts. With the federal court siding with the state gaming regulator’s opinion that sports event contracts are gambling, and not a traditional derivative investment, other state gaming regulators could take action against Kalshi and the like.
The NGCB isn’t alone in opining that sports event contracts constitute sports betting. Regulators in many other states have reached similar conclusions, including in Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
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