Louisiana’s November 12, 2026, court order restricts firms that offer event contracts and firms that clear and settle their trades in a federally regulated market. The order names 32 firms and bars them from serving people in Louisiana without a gaming license. The firms had no notice or chance to be heard before the order was issued, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The next day, the CFTC and the Justice Department sued Louisiana in federal court to block it.
Event contracts pay out based on an outcome, such as an election or a sports result. Louisiana treats the contracts covered by its order as wagers subject to state licensing. The CFTC says qualifying contracts are derivatives under federal law and fall under its authority. The dispute determines whether the named firms can offer those contracts to Louisiana customers.
How Louisiana obtained the November 12 order
Attorney General Liz Murrill brought the state case in Tangipahoa Parish on November 12. A judge granted a temporary restraining order that evening. The CFTC’s federal complaint identifies registered exchanges, brokers and organizations that clear derivatives trades among the 32 entities in the state proceeding.
Louisiana’s order bars those firms from operating, offering, accepting, clearing or settling covered event contracts for people in the state without the required license and permit. It covers contracts tied to sports, elections and awards. Murrill named Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood and Coinbase, bringing prediction-market specialists into the same proceeding as firms that also serve crypto customers.
Louisiana’s gaming regulator classified sports-related and certain other event contracts as illegal gambling in a December 2025 advisory. A Louisiana law that took effect on August 1, 2026, expanded the state’s definition of gambling by computer.
Why the CFTC wants a federal judge to block the order
The CFTC argues that the Commodity Exchange Act, the federal law governing derivatives, gives it exclusive authority over qualifying event contracts traded on registered exchanges. In their federal case, the CFTC and the Justice Department ask the judge to declare Louisiana’s gambling laws invalid as applied to those transactions. They also seek an order stopping state officials from enforcing or extending the restraining order. They seek no damages.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig called Louisiana’s move “naked lawfare” in the agency’s announcement of the lawsuit. He said the contracts had traded openly in Louisiana under federal rules.
The state’s eleventh-hour ‘emergency’ lawsuit seeking to shut down the entire prediction market industry is naked lawfare and a cynical political stunt. The Commission’s lawsuit seeks to maintain the status quo while the federal courts decide this issue in an orderly manner.
Michael S. Selig, CFTC chairman
Murrill publicly disputed Selig’s account after the federal filing. Louisiana’s position is that registration with the CFTC does not exempt sports-related contracts from state gambling rules. The CFTC says Louisiana is the twelfth state it has sued to defend its claimed authority over derivatives markets.
What Louisiana’s licensing rule puts at stake
The named firms’ access to Louisiana customers depends on the federal case. Louisiana’s order applies to businesses that process event-contract trades as well as companies whose apps customers use. The CFTC asks the federal judge to stop enforcement of the state order so the firms can offer covered contracts without state gaming licenses.
Louisiana’s laws carry penalties beyond the restraining order. The CFTC’s complaint says a person who engages in gambling by computer can face a fine of up to $100,000 and up to five years in prison. Someone who knowingly supports or facilitates the operation can face a fine of up to $20,000 and the same potential prison term.
A hearing in the federal case is scheduled for November 17. The state court has a related hearing set for November 30.
