Missouri AG orders six prediction markets to stop sports event contracts

Missouri AG orders six prediction markets to stop sports event contracts

On Friday 18 September 2026, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway issued cease-and-desist letters to six prediction-market operators — Polymarket, Kalshi, Crypto.com, Novig, Underdog and Robinhood — according to multiple state desks citing a Friday office press release. The letters demand they stop offering sports event contracts to Missouri residents unless and until they hold a sports-wagering licence from the Missouri Gaming Commission.

Hanaway’s office treats those contracts as unlicensed sports wagering under Missouri law. In quoted remarks, she said Missouri voters approved a regulated market that funds public education and addresses problem gambling, and that companies cannot “repackage sports bets as ‘event contracts’ to avoid Missouri law.”

What Missouri’s sports-betting framework requires

Voters passed Amendment 2 in November 2024. The Missouri Gaming Commission oversees the market, which launched 1 December 2025. Licensed wagering is taxed at 10% of sports-betting gross receipts; the legal age is 21.

Desk coverage of the letters says the AG rejects the claim that federal CFTC rules preempt state gambling law for these products, and states that sports event contracts do not qualify as Commodity Exchange Act “swaps.” The AG also alleged that Polymarket, Kalshi, Crypto.com, Underdog and Robinhood either allow under-21 access or lack adequate age safeguards for Missouri users.

How operators and the Gaming Commission responded

Robinhood and Polymarket spokespeople told KY3 that their US event contracts sit under CFTC federal regulation (Robinhood via Robinhood Derivatives, LLC). That is their position, not a court ruling in this note.

Missouri Gaming Commission spokesperson Elizabeth Hoffman told ABC17 that the commission views prediction markets as sports-betting platforms, expects several state and federal cases to clarify the perimeter, and believes the products affect licensed sports-wagering revenue — without a measured figure while they remain outside the regulated market.

Why it matters for vault readers

This is a licensing and age-gate story for how sports outcomes are wagered in Missouri: licensed books under the Gaming Commission versus prediction-market event contracts the AG is treating as illegal sports bets. It does not change wagering rules, cash-out windows or bonus terms on any Vault house page, and it does not invent which brands hold Missouri licences.

Read it next to [Lithuania LPT blocks Polymarket](/news/lithuania-lpt-blocks-polymarket) for the EU enforcement neighbour. Keep small print and responsible play in view.

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