About a month after the Blue Lake Rancheria, Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, and Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians filed a lawsuit against Kalshi and Robinhood for allegedly illegal sports gambling, the three Indian Tribes have moved for a preliminary injunction against Kalshi Inc. and KalshiEX LLC, (collectively, Kalshi).
The plaintiffs move the California Northern District Court o enter a preliminary injunction enjoining Kalshi from offering on the Tribes’ Indian lands any sports contracts, including, but not limited to, contracts that facially involve, relate to, or reference the sports of baseball, tennis, pickleball, soccer, basketball, football, golf, chess, esports, hockey, motorsports, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (“UFC”), and any other sports events.
The Tribes further request that the Court enjoin Kalshi from offering on the Tribes’ Indian lands contracts that take the form of a binary “yes/no” event contract that pose the following questions:
- “Will
win ?” - “Will
win ?”
and any subsequent permutation, alteration, or variation of such contracts that facially involve, relate to, or reference sports, constitute or mimic sports betting, or any other potential class III gaming activity.
The Tribes further request that Court enjoin Kalshi from marketing its sports contracts as “legal in all 50 states” or any variation of that phrase or similar representation regarding the nationwide legality of these gaming contracts.
The action seeks to prevent Robinhood and Kalshi from engaging in illegal sports gambling on the Tribes’ respective reservations in direct violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, 25 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq. (“IGRA”), the Tribes’ Tribal-State Gaming Compacts with the State of California entered into pursuant to the IGRA, Secretarial Procedures issued by the Secretary pursuant to the IGRA, the Tribes’ Gaming Ordinances approved by the Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission pursuant to the IGRA, and the respective Tribal Gaming Commissions’ regulations adopted pursuant to the Tribes’ federally approved Ordinances and Compacts, all of which prohibit sports gambling on the Tribes’ reservations or “Indian Lands”, as defined by the IGRA.
