Vardan Khachatryan
Kalshi in New Jersey
Available for all contracts.
- Sports contracts
- Available
- Other contracts
- Available
- Regulator
- CFTC: a designated contract market (DCM) and derivatives clearing organization
- Rulings and actions in New Jersey
- 2 on record, listed in the timeline
- Legal sports betting
- Since June 2018; online revenue taxed at 19.75%
- Supreme Court
- New Jersey's petition, No. 26-299, is pending
- Federal appeals court
- Third Circuit: ruled for Kalshi on April 6, 2026
- Last change
- September 22, 2026
Each entry on this page links the ruling or report it rests on. Nothing here is legal advice.
Open Kalshi$50 bonusNew to Kalshi? Trade $20, get a $50 bonus through our link. US only, 18+. Offer terms
Why Kalshi is legal in New Jersey
Kalshi is a federally regulated exchange. The CFTC designated it a contract market in 2020, the same status futures exchanges hold.
Kalshi says that puts its contracts under the CFTC alone. New Jersey is where a federal appeals court first agreed.
On April 6, 2026, the Third Circuit upheld an order barring New Jersey from enforcing its gambling laws against Kalshi.
That order is still in force. Kalshi lists every category in New Jersey, sports included.
Legal today is not the same as settled. New Jersey has asked the Supreme Court to reverse the ruling, and two other appeals courts disagree with it.
What you can trade on Kalshi from New Jersey
Everything Kalshi lists: sports, politics, economics, crypto, culture and weather. You must be 18 or over and pass its ID checks.
Sports is the big one. The Devils play in Newark, and the Giants and Jets play at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. All three trade on Kalshi.
College sports are a flashpoint. New Jersey sportsbooks cannot take bets on New Jersey college teams, or on college games played in the state.
New Jersey says Kalshi lists exactly those games, including NCAA games played in the state by its teams.
Politics trades too. Senator Cory Booker is up for re-election on November 3, 2026, and Kalshi lists the race.
How Kalshi works for New Jersey traders
Every Kalshi contract is a yes-or-no question. It pays $1 if the answer is yes and nothing if it is no.
The price is the market's odds. A contract at 60¢ means traders put the chance at about 60%.
Say the Devils are 60¢ to win tonight. You buy 100 contracts for $60. Kalshi's standard fee on that trade is $1.68.
If the Devils win, you collect $100, a $38.32 profit. If they lose, you are out $61.68.
You trade against other people, not the house. Kalshi earns its fee either way.
The fee is highest near 50¢ and shrinks toward either end. Our Kalshi fees guide has the full schedule.
What New Jersey has said about Kalshi
New Jersey moved against Kalshi early. On March 27, 2025, the Division of Gaming Enforcement sent it a cease-and-desist letter.
Interim Director Mary Jo Flaherty signed it. Kalshi, she wrote, “is listing unauthorized sports wagers for individuals located within the State of New Jersey.”
She gave Kalshi until 11:59 p.m. the next day to confirm it had stopped. Robinhood, which sells Kalshi's contracts, got the same letter.
Kalshi sued instead, and the state has kept pressing.
On May 1, 2026, Attorney General Jennifer Davenport led 41 attorneys general in a formal comment to the CFTC. Her message was blunt.
“We call on the CFTC to stop their federal power grab and recognize this authority belongs with the States.”
KalshiEX v. Flaherty, New Jersey's case against Kalshi, explained
Kalshi sued New Jersey's gaming officials on March 28, 2025, in KalshiEX LLC v. Flaherty, No. 1:25-cv-02152.
Judge Edward S. Kiel granted a preliminary injunction on April 28, 2025. New Jersey appealed to the Third Circuit.
The appeals court ruled 2-1 on April 6, 2026. Judge David Porter wrote for himself and Chief Judge Michael Chagares.
The majority held that Kalshi's sports contracts are swaps on a CFTC-licensed exchange. “The Act preempts state laws that directly interfere with swaps traded on DCMs,” it wrote.
It saw New Jersey's rules as the very thing Congress ended. “This state regulation is exactly the patchwork that Congress replaced wholecloth by creating the CFTC.”
Judge Jane Roth dissented. Gambling has always been the states' to regulate, she argued, and she put it plainly.
“Basic abductive reasoning tells us that if it looks like gambling, talks like gambling, and calls itself gambling, it’s gambling.”
The ruling is a preliminary one. It says Kalshi is likely to win, and the trial court case is paused while the Supreme Court decides.
It binds federal courts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. It does not bind New Jersey's own courts or any other circuit.
What could change Kalshi's status in New Jersey
The Supreme Court could. New Jersey filed its petition, Flaherty v. KalshiEX, No. 26-299, on September 2, 2026.
It asks whether federal law stopped states from regulating sports bets on CFTC-registered markets. Congress “did not silently make the sports-betting industry immune from state law,” Davenport said.
Kalshi's response is due November 9. The justices decide afterward whether to take the case.
The justices have more than one vehicle. The Ninth and Sixth Circuits ruled against Kalshi after April, and Robinhood has filed its own petition.
Lawmakers could change the picture too. A bill to tax prediction market operators at 9% cleared both budget committees in June 2026.
Another bill, S3692, would ban markets on deaths, catastrophes and politics. It has not left committee. Our litigation tracker follows each case.
Kalshi in New Jersey: timeline
Every change to Kalshi's position in New Jersey, newest first. Each entry links the ruling or filing behind it.
How Kalshi compares to sports betting in New Jersey
New Jersey made legal sports betting possible nationwide. It won Murphy v. NCAA at the Supreme Court on May 14, 2018.
Governor Phil Murphy signed the state's sports betting law weeks later, on June 11, 2018. Online betting followed.
Licensed sportsbooks answer to the Division of Gaming Enforcement. They pay 19.75% of online revenue in tax, and bettors must be 21.
Kalshi follows none of those rules, because it answers to the CFTC. It pays no New Jersey gaming tax and accepts traders from 18.
That gap is the whole fight. For you, the difference is the other side of the trade. A sportsbook takes your bet, while Kalshi matches you with another trader.
Other prediction market apps in New Jersey
Robinhood has its own shield. A consent order of August 22, 2025, bars New Jersey from enforcement over the Kalshi sports contracts it sells.
Several apps skip sports here by choice. DraftKings and FanDuel run licensed sportsbooks in New Jersey, and OG lists no sports contracts in the state.
We found no New Jersey action against Polymarket US. Court orders protect only Kalshi and Robinhood, though.
Here is where each app we rank stands in the state. For the full picture, see prediction markets in New Jersey.
| App | Status in New Jersey | More |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini Predictions | Available, sports included | Gemini Predictions review |
| Polymarket US | Available, sports included | Polymarket review |
| OG | Available, but not for sports contracts | OG review |
| Interactive Brokers | Available; it lists no sports contracts anywhere | Interactive Brokers review |
| Robinhood | Available, sports included | Robinhood review |
| ProphetX | Available, sports included | ProphetX review |
| Coinbase | Available, sports included | Coinbase review |
| Webull | Available, sports included | Webull review |
| Novig | Available, sports included | Novig review |
| DraftKings Predictions | Available, but not for sports contracts | DraftKings Predictions review |
| Fanatics Markets | Not available | Fanatics Markets review |
| FanDuel Predicts | Available, but not for sports contracts | FanDuel Predicts review |
| PrizePicks | Available, sports included | PrizePicks review |
| Underdog Predict | Available, sports included | Underdog Predict review |
How to use Kalshi in New Jersey
Sign up with your email, confirm your identity with a driver's license or passport, and fund the account.
Kalshi takes bank transfers, debit cards, Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo, wires and crypto, among others. Withdrawals carry no Kalshi fee.
There is nothing extra to do in New Jersey. The court order covers the whole state.
Read our Kalshi review for its fees, payouts and the lawsuits against it. New to all this? Start with what prediction markets are.