Gov. DeWine: State will begin enforcing gambling laws for online sports betting apps

Gov. Mike DeWine announced that the state will enforce its gambling laws against online gambling sites like Kalshi after a federal appeals court refused to shield the company’s sports contracts from state oversight.

On Sept. 25, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit sided with Ohio and Tennessee. The court held that Kalshi had not shown its sports-event contracts are “swaps” under the Commodity Exchange Act, a category that would place them under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Even if they were swaps, the panel said, federal law would not preempt state gambling statutes. The ruling affirmed a lower-court denial of an injunction in Ohio and vacated an injunction Kalshi had won in Tennessee.

DeWine, a longtime critic of gambling expansion, treated the decision as a green light to begin enforcing state laws.

In comments reported by IdeaStream, DeWine called the products “really gambling, nothing more than that,” and said operators were trying to avoid the licensing, taxation, and consumer rules that apply to regulated sportsbooks by calling gambling something else.

“They don’t want to pay anything,” DeWine said. “They just want to have a free ride.”

Ohio, he added, “will certainly enforce the law.”

The Ohio Casino Control Commission had already moved against unlicensed sports gaming on the platform; the appeals decision strengthens the state’s hand while the broader case continues, and while a split among federal circuits likely leaves room for eventual Supreme Court review.

The legal fight is running alongside a surge in event-contract trading.

Kalshi’s year-to-date notional volume through early October is approximately $252.4 billion, including $66.3 billion in October, while only $78.6 billion has been paid out, according to DeFirate tracking.

Sports outcomes account for most of that activity — game winners, player props, and parlays — rather than the economic contracts the company has cited in court.

Analysts estimate prediction markets have been siphoning off roughly 4% to 6% of demand for traditional sports betting from licensed sportsbooks in states where both are available.

50% of Young Singles/Couples and 60% of Young Families we just surveyed use sports betting apps or prediction market platforms.

From a housing perspective, that’s not the ideal societal trend we’d like to see when it comes to saving for a down payment. pic.twitter.com/r9UdPZLe82

— Rick Palacios Jr. (@RickPalaciosJr) September 30, 2026

Researchers say that 50% of singles and 60% of couples are spending money on prediction markets—a trend that doesn’t bode well for homeownership.

Those bets even tend to venture into pure novelty, such as bets on whether Taylor Swift would attend the Super Bowl, how many NFL games she would appear at, what a halftime performer would sing or wear, and whether announcers would say particular phrases.

While these celebrity markets are small next to NFL games, they illustrate a growing concern over unregulated gambling markets now siphoning billions from young Americans each quarter.

According to DeWine, a yes-or-no wager on public events, even when offered nationwide, is still gambling and therefore should require a state sports-betting license.

“They are gambling,” DeWine said. “And just because they call themselves something doesn’t mean they’re not gambling. If it’s a pig, it’s a pig. If we call that pig a sheep, it’s still not a sheep. It’s a pig.”