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Utah Files 14 Criminal Charges Against Kalshi, Naming Its Co-Founders As Co-Defendants
The Utah Attorney General's Office has filed 14 criminal charges against KalshiEX, LLC, the operator of US prediction market Kalshi, in a case that names co-founders Tarek Mansour, Chief Executive Officer, and Luana Lopes Lara, Chief Operating Officer, as co-defendants.
The Charges
The charges comprise one count of pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony; twelve counts of online gambling promotion, each a third-degree felony; and one count of general gambling promotion, a class A misdemeanour.
The counts are based on twelve wagers placed between 13 and 24 September 2026 by an undercover special agent using an account opened with a Utah address. The wagers, on NFL, college football, MLS, MLB and NHL events, ranged from $4 to $30, and Kalshi charged a transaction fee on each. According to the charging document, Kalshi required the agent to confirm his location using location services before placing a wager.
An Escalating Dispute
The criminal case follows a civil lawsuit filed by the Utah Attorney General on 20 October against KalshiEX and related entities, alleging that sports, election and political contracts breach Utah's gambling laws. According to the Deseret News, the civil complaint claims Kalshi made between $30.5 million and $61.1 million from Utah accounts between February and 19 October 2026.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) then sued Utah in federal court, arguing that federal law preempts state gambling laws as applied to event contracts on CFTC-regulated exchanges. In August, a federal judge granted summary judgment to Utah in a separate case brought by Kalshi, and the Tenth Circuit declined in September to block enforcement pending appeal.
The case comes as event contracts move further into mainstream brokerage. Multi-asset fintech group Plus500 (@Plus500) this week became the first FCM to make Kalshi perps available to clients, and US broker Robinhood (@robinhood) reported that prediction markets earned it more than crypto in the third quarter. Kalshi raised $1 billion at a $22 billion valuation in May.
"Gambling is illegal in Utah, whether you place the bet, run the game, or promote it. Calling it a 'prediction market' doesn't change what it is, and being federally registered doesn't put a company above the law. A federal court has already ruled that Utah's gambling laws apply to Kalshi. Kalshi kept taking bets from Utahns anyway. That is illegal, and we're putting a stop to it." - Derek Brown, Attorney General, State of Utah
"This is a crazy overreach; Utah is clearly playing politics. We look forward to putting a stop to this in court, just like we did in Arizona." - Spokesperson, Kalshi
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