TheBlock
An Ingham County Circuit Court judge has ordered Kalshi to keep blocking Michigan residents from its sports event contracts, handing the state a preliminary injunction and converting an earlier temporary restraining order issued in June. Judge Rosemarie E. Aquilina issued the order Tuesday, and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced it Wednesday. Violations of the geofencing rules carry a $500,000 per day fine, and the injunction stays in place until a final ruling in the underlying lawsuit Michigan filed in March.
Why it matters
The order locks in place a regulator-driven template for restricting event-contract platforms: a third-party geolocation provider licensed by the state's gaming regulator, not the platform's own detection layer. Kalshi's attempt to move the case to federal court failed in the Western District of Michigan, which remanded the suit back to state court. That procedural loss matters, because state courts are where state gaming law bites hardest and the venue is now where Kalshi's defense will be argued. The $500,000 daily penalty is calibrated so that even brief geofencing lapses are a balance-sheet event, not a compliance footnote.
Market impact
Kalshi remains the dominant player in US prediction markets by a wide margin, recording $38.67 billion in trading volume in August against $8.41 billion combined for Polymarket and Polymarket US, per The Block's dashboard. That lead is what is being tested: more than a dozen states have now taken enforcement action or filed lawsuits against the platform, with Connecticut filing its own suit last week. Investors in the prediction-markets category will read the Michigan order as a state-by-state cost of doing business, not a one-off, and will price in continued legal drag across the platform's expansion runway.
Frequently asked questions
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What did the Michigan court order Kalshi to do?
Judge Rosemarie E. Aquilina issued a preliminary injunction requiring Kalshi to keep blocking Michigan residents from accessing sports event contracts and to use a third-party geolocation provider licensed by the state's gaming regulator.
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What is the penalty if Kalshi violates the order?
Violations of the geofencing requirements carry a $500,000 per day fine, and the injunction stays in place until a final ruling in the underlying lawsuit Michigan filed against Kalshi in March.
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Why did Kalshi lose its bid to move the case to federal court?
The Western District of Michigan granted the state's motion to remand it back to state court, leaving state gaming law as the governing framework for the case going forward.
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How many other states are taking action against Kalshi?
More than a dozen states have taken enforcement action or filed lawsuits against the platform, with Connecticut filing its own suit last week to block Kalshi from offering sports contracts.
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How big is Kalshi compared to its prediction-market competitors?
Kalshi recorded $38.67 billion in trading volume in August, versus $8.41 billion combined for Polymarket and Polymarket US, per The Block's data dashboard.
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