Is Kalshi Legal in New Jersey? Court Status and Every Gambling Lawsuit in New Jersey

Status as of 14 November 2026: Kalshi offers sports event contracts in New Jersey under a federal preliminary injunction of 28 April 2025 that bars the state from enforcing its gambling laws against them, affirmed by the Third Circuit on 6 April 2026.

• District court: D.N.J. No. 1:25-cv-02152, Judge Kiel, preliminary injunction of 28 April 2025.
• Third Circuit: No. 25-1922, decided 6 April 2026, 2 to 1.
• Supreme Court: petition No. 26-299, response due 7 December 2026, no order.
• Next date: 7 December 2026.

Seven steps in three courts; the injunction of 28 April 2025 is the order in force and the Supreme Court has not acted on the petition.

New Jersey is the state whose Kalshi case is before the U.S. Supreme Court: it lost in the district court and the Third Circuit, so Kalshi operates here under an injunction.

It is also the only large Kalshi state whose residents sit inside an open gambling settlement. This page holds the court status and the 2 gambling lawsuits in our New Jersey record. A complaint states one side's allegations; only the court's orders decide anything.

Is Kalshi legal in New Jersey? What the courts have ordered

As of 14 November 2026 no New Jersey court or agency may enforce the state's gambling laws against Kalshi's sports event contracts, because a federal court enjoined enforcement on 28 April 2025 and the Third Circuit upheld that injunction on 6 April 2026.

The courts answered two questions: whether the contracts are swaps on a registered exchange, and whether federal law preempts state gambling law (7 U.S.C. 2(a)(1)(A)).

Read these answers against the wider record of gambling lawsuits in the United States, where other circuits have answered differently and where no state's order binds another.

Kalshi v. Flaherty: the cease-and-desist, the injunction and the Third Circuit (1:25-cv-02152)

The Division of Gaming Enforcement sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist letter on 27 March 2025 citing the state constitution's ban on betting on college sports, and Kalshi sued the Division's interim director, the Attorney General and the Casino Control Commission members the next day.

Judge Porter wrote the opinion with Chief Judge Chagares; Judge Roth dissented. The majority held that sports event contracts are swaps on a CFTC-designated contract market and that both field and conflict preemption bar New Jersey's enforcement.

Flaherty v. KalshiEX at the Supreme Court (No. 26-299)

New Jersey petitioned for certiorari on 2 September 2026; the petition was docketed on 8 September, the response deadline was extended twice, to 9 November and then to 7 December 2026, and the Court has neither granted nor denied the petition as of 14 November 2026.

Ohio and 38 other states, 145 tribes, the NFL and the American Gaming Association filed amicus briefs. Counsel are Sundeep Iyer for New Jersey and Paul Clement and Neal Katyal for Kalshi.

Two companion petitions, Nos. 26-338 and 26-344, have responses due the same day. The Third Circuit stands against the Sixth and Ninth, which ruled the other way; the swaps question is explained in how is Kalshi legal.

Robinhood v. Flaherty and the Delaware spillover

Robinhood Derivatives sued the Division on 19 August 2025 in the District of New Jersey (1:25-cv-14723), and its case is stayed behind Kalshi's and now behind the petition, per the court tracker.

Delaware, the other Third Circuit state, has no state action and is governed by Flaherty while the petition is pending. New Jersey's prediction market lawsuits (1) are a small group in a national record of 7; compare all prediction market lawsuits.

What happens next

The one fixed date is 7 December 2026, when Kalshi's response to the petition is due; after that the Court sets a conference date, and a grant or denial follows, with no date for either in the record.

Follow the other circuits in pending appeals and high court gambling cases.

Open settlements covering New Jersey residents

One open gambling settlement covers New Jersey residents as of 14 November 2026: the Pulsz six-state settlement, where New Jersey players who bought coins between 19 February 2024 and 31 August 2026 can elect cash by 30 November 2026.

The court is the Circuit Court of Franklin County, Alabama (33-CV-2025-900072.00, the court's number; one copy prints 22-CV), Judge Brian P. Hamilton, which granted preliminary approval on 31 August 2026.

The settlement is set to pay if the court grants final approval at the hearing of 31 December 2026. Filing a claim in any settlement is free; we are not a law firm and not an administrator.

The payout estimate rests on this formula: the Estimated Total Benefit of about USD 14,000,000 is 25% of net purchases in the six states, with the cash pool capped at about USD 3,500,000.

By default a member receives an estimated 27% of net purchases in Gold Coins at 10,000 coins per USD, spread over up to 12 months with 20% credited in the first 30 days.

Electing cash by 30 November 2026 gives an estimated 23% of net purchases, an estimated USD 230 per USD 1,000 before deductions. Administrative expenses, any fee award and incentive awards reduce both pro rata; the agreement has the defendant pay the fee award yet computes benefits net of fees.

Earlier settlements also covered New Jersey: SciPlay's six-state settlement (paid) and a DraftKings sports betting settlement (figures press-only). Every window is in open gambling class action settlements by deadline.

Gambling lawsuits in New Jersey: every case we track

Our record holds 2 gambling lawsuits in New Jersey courts or brought by New Jersey, among them 0 sweepstakes casino, 0 sportsbook, 1 prediction market, 0 antitrust, 0 patron and 0 addiction cases, and cases on social casinos, casino tax, Monmouth Park's bond and PASPA. Where a docket is not in the record the table says so.

The table is also available as a CSV, with stable ids and a change log, through our open data under a CC BY 4.0 license.

New Jersey's loss-recovery statute and how it has been used

New Jersey's loss-recovery statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:40-5, with the third-party right in 2A:40-6 and the voidness rule in 2A:40-3, has been pleaded in six class actions by or for New Jersey residents since 2024, and no New Jersey court has ruled on its merits against an online operator in our record.

The full list of such laws is in gambling loss recovery statutes by US state.

Two settlements rest on this theory without a ruling: Pulsz, which is open, and SciPlay, which is paid. Neither court decided the merits.

The Consumer Fraud Act route has a limit: in Antar v. BetMGM the Third Circuit held on 28 April 2025 (No. 24-1364, not precedential) that gambling losses are not an ascertainable loss and that New Jersey imposes no duty of care on casinos toward problem gamblers.

In Youngs v. DraftKings (D.N.J. 2:25-cv-00179, Judge Chesler) fraud claims over "risk-free" bets survived on 19 November 2025, with no class certified. See can you sue a casino or sportsbook.

Sweepstakes casino status in New Jersey

New Jersey's statutory ban on dual-currency sweepstakes casinos, P.L.2025 c.128, is listed as in force from 15 August 2025, a date we have not yet checked against the chaptered law. The list comes from Settlement Insight.

New Jersey's sweepstakes cases (0) are King v. VGW, King v. Sunflower, Nufio v. Sweepsteaks (removed from Monmouth County on 8 July 2026, per a Justia index only) and the two Bargo suits against Apple and Google. See sweepstakes casino bans by state.

State enforcement: Division of Gaming Enforcement, attorney general and the PASPA line

New Jersey enforces through the Division of Gaming Enforcement's letters and the Attorney General's litigation, and its two largest gambling cases are ones the state lost and won at the top: Murphy v. NCAA, which struck PASPA in 2018, and Flaherty, which it is asking the Supreme Court to take.

The Division also acts administratively: its August 2024 order made bet365 reimburse USD 519,323.32 to 199 accounts, an administrative order, not a court case. For the pattern across states, see regulators and attorneys general in court.

Murphy v. NCAA and the Monmouth Park bond

On 14 May 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court held in Murphy v. NCAA that PASPA's ban on state authorization of sports betting unconstitutionally commandeered state legislatures and struck the whole Act.

Thirty-eight states and D.C. have since legalized sports betting, as our record states.

The Atlantic City casino PILOT tax case

In Liberty and Prosperity 1776 v. State of New Jersey the Appellate Division held on 21 October 2024 (A-0487-22, unpublished) that the 2021 amendment removing internet gaming and sports betting revenue from the casinos' payment-in-lieu-of-taxes base is constitutional, reversing a 2022 trial ruling by Judge Blee. The amendment removes about USD 55 million a year from the base.

Courts and where to find the dockets

New Jersey gambling litigation on this page runs through the District of New Jersey, the Third Circuit, the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Superior Court's Law and Appellate Divisions, and most of the orders are public PDFs.

Compare other states in gambling lawsuits by US state.

New Jersey is a petitioner against Kalshi and not a CFTC defendant; the matrix is in states suing Kalshi and states sued by the CFTC.

Questions people ask

Is online gambling a federal crime?

The cases on this page are civil and state-law cases, and they turn on state statutes and federal preemption, not criminal charges. For federal statutes see what the Wire Act, UIGEA and PASPA actually decided.

Can New Jersey residents claim the Pulsz settlement?

Yes: New Jersey residents who bought Pulsz coins between 19 February 2024 and 31 August 2026 are in the settlement class and can elect cash by 30 November 2026, or receive Gold Coins by default. Estimates are in the settlement table above. See Pulsz six-state settlement: claim by 30 November 2026.

What happens on 7 December 2026?

Kalshi's response to New Jersey's petition (No. 26-299) is due, along with responses in the two companion petitions. The Court has set no conference date and issued no order.

Is there a Kalshi class action or payout?

No Kalshi case has produced a payout and no class is certified as of 14 November 2026. The consolidated class action in New York has no settlement. See all Kalshi lawsuits.

Where to find the other states

• Nevada reached the opposite outcome, with sports contracts blocked by a state court: is Kalshi legal in Nevada.
• New York's federal court denied Kalshi an injunction and the state is suing: is Kalshi legal in New York.
• Every state in one list: is Kalshi legal? court status in every state.

Out of scope on this page

This page covers court cases only, so it does not answer:

• Whether you can bet on sports in New Jersey, or which city has casinos.
• Whether gambling is illegal in New Jersey; the court case on the point is Murphy v. NCAA, above.
• How to use any operator.

Last checked 14 November 2026. Next scheduled check: 30 November 2026 (Pulsz election deadline) and 7 December 2026 (Supreme Court response). How every case on this page is sourced and checked.