Vardan Khachatryan
Kalshi in Texas
Under state review for sports contracts, with no restriction in force.
- Sports contracts
- Available, but contested
- Other contracts
- Available
- Regulator
- CFTC: a designated contract market (DCM) and derivatives clearing organization
- Rulings and actions in Texas
- None on record
- Legal sports betting
- None, apart from pari-mutuel racing
- State income tax
- None
- Federal appeals court
- Fifth Circuit: has not ruled on the question
- Last change
- September 15, 2026
Each entry on this page links the ruling or report it rests on. Nothing here is legal advice.
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Why Kalshi is legal in Texas
Kalshi is a federally regulated exchange. The CFTC designated it a contract market in 2020, the status futures exchanges hold.
Kalshi says that makes its contracts derivatives, which only the CFTC can police. So it operates in Texas without a state license.
Texas has not challenged that claim. It has sent Kalshi no cease-and-desist letter, filed no lawsuit and passed no law aimed at prediction markets.
Legal today is not the same as settled. Texas law makes a bet on a game or an election a misdemeanor. Whether an event contract counts is the open question.
What you can trade on Kalshi from Texas
Everything Kalshi lists: sports, politics, economics, crypto, culture and weather. You must be 18 or over and pass its ID checks.
Sports draw the most money. Kalshi lists game and season markets on the Cowboys, Texans, Astros, Rangers, Mavericks, Rockets, Spurs and Stars.
College football trades too, Longhorns and Aggies included. Texans trade a lot of it: Eilers & Krejcik found 43% of sports contract activity came from Texas and California.
Politics is busy this year. Texas elects a governor, a U.S. senator and an attorney general on November 3, 2026, and Kalshi lists all three.
Follow two of them live: Texas Senate odds and Texas governor odds.
Candidates cannot trade their own races. Kalshi fined a Texas congressional candidate $784 and banned him for five years for doing it.
How Kalshi works for Texas traders
Each Kalshi contract asks a yes-or-no question. A correct contract pays $1. A wrong one pays nothing.
So the price reads as a probability. A contract at 60¢ means the market gives the outcome about a 60% chance.
Take a Cowboys game with the Cowboys at 60¢. You buy 100 contracts for $60, and Kalshi's standard fee comes to $1.68.
A Cowboys win pays $100, a $38.32 profit after the fee. A loss costs you $61.68.
The other side of your trade is another trader, not a bookmaker. Kalshi collects its fee whoever wins.
Fees peak at 50¢ and fall toward 1¢ and 99¢. Our Kalshi fees guide lists every series.
What Texas has said about Kalshi
No Texas agency has acted against Kalshi. We found no cease-and-desist letter, no lawsuit and no regulator notice.
The pressure comes from the Senate. On March 27, 2026, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick gave the State Affairs Committee a charge headed “Closing Gambling Loopholes.”
It asks senators to study “the sudden inundation of prediction market gambling.” It also targets the use of federal law to get around Texas gambling bans.
The charge names no company. The House has no matching charge.
Attorney General Ken Paxton has stayed out of it. Politico reported he did not join the multistate briefs other attorneys general filed against Kalshi.
Paxton is also this year's Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, a race Kalshi lists.
The Texas Senate's review of Kalshi, explained
There is no Texas lawsuit against Kalshi. The live process is a Senate interim study, which can shape bills but cannot ban anything itself.
The charge has three parts. Study prediction markets, and examine how federal derivatives law meets state gambling law. Then recommend ways to protect “Texas elections and Texas sports.”
The State Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Bryan Hughes, took testimony on September 15, 2026. It was an interim hearing, so no vote was held.
Kalshi sent its head of enforcement. He warned a ban would leave “a bunch of customers in Texas just going offshore.”
The American Gaming Association urged senators to seek a geofencing order and sue in state court. The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas testified too.
So did the Texas Medical Association. Days earlier, it had urged the apps to raise their minimum age from 18 to 21.
Next comes the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027. No report date is set, and any ban would need a new law.
What could change Kalshi's status in Texas
Three things could. The first is the Legislature. A 2027 bill could ban prediction markets or bring them under a state license.
Any such law would meet a federal fight. The CFTC has sued states that moved against the exchanges, including Arizona and Illinois.
The second is a lawsuit. Paxton leaves office in January 2027, and his successor could take Kalshi to court under state gambling law.
That would put the question to the Fifth Circuit, which has not ruled. The circuits that have are split: the Third for Kalshi, the Ninth and Sixth against.
The third is the Supreme Court. New Jersey has asked it to decide, and a ruling there would bind Texas too. Our litigation tracker follows each case.
Kalshi in Texas: timeline
Every change to Kalshi's position in Texas, newest first. Each entry links the record behind it.
How Kalshi compares to sports betting in Texas
Texas has no legal sportsbook, online or in person. Pari-mutuel wagering on horse races is the one form of sports wagering allowed.
Lawmakers keep trying. In May 2023, the House passed a sports betting amendment 101 to 42. The Senate never voted on it.
In 2025, the idea returned as HJR 134 and SJR 65. Both died in committee. Legalizing it takes a constitutional amendment and a statewide vote.
So Kalshi has no licensed sportsbook to compete with here. Its nearest rivals are daily fantasy apps, which Paxton's office called likely illegal in 2016.
The real difference is the supervisor. A sportsbook would need a license Texas does not offer. Kalshi answers to the CFTC.
Other prediction market apps in Texas
With no sportsbooks to protect, DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics all sell sports contracts to Texans through their prediction apps.
Here is where each app we rank stands in Texas. For the full picture, see prediction markets in Texas.
| App | Status in Texas | More |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini Predictions | Available, sports included | Gemini Predictions review |
| Polymarket US | Available, sports included | Polymarket review |
| OG | Available, sports included | 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, sports included | DraftKings Predictions review |
| Fanatics Markets | Available, sports included | Fanatics Markets review |
| FanDuel Predicts | Available, sports included | FanDuel Predicts review |
| PrizePicks | Available, sports included | PrizePicks review |
| Underdog Predict | Available, sports included | Underdog Predict review |
How to use Kalshi in Texas
Sign up with your email, confirm your identity with a driver's license or passport, then fund the account.
Kalshi takes bank transfers, debit cards, Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo, wires and crypto, among others. Bank and wire deposits are free; cards can cost 2%.
Texas has no personal income tax, so the state takes nothing from your profits. The IRS still does.
Before you deposit, read our Kalshi review for its fees, payouts and lawsuits. New to this? Start with what prediction markets are.