Nevada Sportsbooks Press Regulators to Curb Prediction Markets

Nevada’s licensed sportsbook operators used a state gaming board meeting this week to press regulators to keep prediction markets out, telling the Nevada Gaming Control Board that platforms like Kalshi are draining betting volume and undercutting the licensed model the state’s economy is built on.

The pushback came from two operators in the middle of expanding their Nevada footprint: Caesars Digital president Eric Hession and veteran bookmaker Joe Asher, chief executive of Boomer’s Sportsbook. Both appeared before the board on July 8, 2026, on matters tied to new sportsbooks, and both were asked directly by board members what the unlicensed platforms are doing to their business. Nevada’s sports betting handle is down roughly $249 million so far this year, according to state figures.

What the operators told the board

Hession, whose company runs sportsbooks in 32 states outside Nevada, said the hit to revenue was hard to isolate but that industry-wide growth had clearly slowed, from an annual pace of 10% to 15% to something lower, with prediction markets a likely factor. He stopped short of blaming them for the full decline. His sharper argument was structural: the platforms chase the same bettors without carrying the same costs. Prediction markets “operate with a big competitive advantage,” Hession told the board in comments reported by CDC Gaming, because “they don’t have to pay taxes, they don’t have to comply with regulations, they can target 18-year-olds.” Licensed operators, he warned, were “falling behind quickly” in states that let the contracts run unchecked.

Asher was blunter. He told regulators he had personally watched people place Kalshi wagers from inside Nevada despite a court order barring the company from taking them, describing one bettor who changed his address to California in the app to get around the block, and said Kalshi advertising was still surfacing in the state. Board member George Assad, a former judge, made the operators’ case for them, noting that money staked on prediction markets would otherwise flow to Nevada’s licensed books. For now, he added, the state can only rely on the courts.

That framing, a product that looks like sports betting should be regulated like sports betting, is the heart of the industry’s position. It is also the regulator’s. Nevada treats sports event contracts as wagering that requires a state license, and officials have cast their enforcement as upholding gaming law and consumer protections rather than shielding incumbent operators.

Nevada’s fight in the courts

Nevada has been among the most aggressive states against prediction markets since it sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist letter in March 2025. A federal judge initially sided with the company before reversing course later that year, and Kalshi’s appeal is now pending before a federal appeals court. Nevada then pursued the company in state court, winning a series of orders that barred Kalshi from offering sports, election and entertainment contracts to anyone in the state.

A follow-up order on May 18, 2026 required Kalshi to use geofencing to block Nevada users entirely. When the board concluded the company kept serving them anyway, it asked the court in June 2026 to hold Kalshi in contempt and impose financial penalties. Kalshi says it has complied. The board has secured similar injunctions against Polymarket and Coinbase, and pushed other platforms, including Crypto.com and Robinhood, to limit what they offer in the state.

The Nevada actions sit within a broader wave of state enforcement. More than a dozen states have sued, issued cease-and-desist orders, or passed laws targeting the platforms, from Michigan’s court order halting Kalshi’s sports contracts to Minnesota’s outright ban.

Why the stakes are high

The dispute turns on jurisdiction. Prediction markets argue they are federally regulated as derivatives exchanges and that federal commodities law overrides state gambling rules; states counter that sports event contracts are gambling and fall squarely under their authority. The question is widely expected to reach the Supreme Court, and a recent New York ruling that let the state enforce its gambling laws against Kalshi showed how differently courts are treating it.

Nevada carries more weight than most. It is the country’s oldest and most established gaming jurisdiction, its economy leans heavily on a tightly licensed system, and it has drawn the hardest line against the platforms. If prediction markets cannot operate there, the industry’s argument that it belongs in every state gets harder to make. The board’s contempt case against Kalshi is set for a hearing on July 16, 2026.