Ohio tells licensees to cut prediction-market ties by 30 Oct

Ohio's gambling regulator has warned the companies it licenses that supplying services to unlicensed prediction markets raises "significant suitability concerns". In a letter sent on Tuesday 20 October 2026 to its sports gaming and fantasy contest licensees and applicants, according to a copy published by The Event Horizon, the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) told them to "immediately cease" any such work. Interim Executive Director Andromeda Morrison confirmed the notice at the commission's public meeting on Wednesday and said every licensee and applicant must confirm compliance "no later than October 30."

Prediction markets sell event contracts, which are trades that pay out depending on whether something happens, including the result of a sports game. They are regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), according to Legal Sports Report, but Ohio's position is that sports event contracts offered to people in Ohio without a state sports gaming licence break Ohio law. Until now, the state's pressure has been aimed at the platforms themselves. This letter targets the businesses behind regulated betting.

Who the letter covers

The OCCC says it is "deeply concerned by reports" that some of its licensees "continue to facilitate, support, or otherwise provide services" to unlicensed platforms offering sports event contracts in Ohio. The services it names are liquidity provision and market making, integrity monitoring, and equipment, data security and other technology-related services. The letter names no company as doing this.

The definition of "licensee" in the letter is broad. It covers fantasy contest operators, sports gaming proprietors, management services providers, mobile management services providers, suppliers and their key employees, certified independent integrity monitors, certified independent testing laboratories, and anyone applying for those licences or certifications. One exception applies: licensees that are futures commission merchants or "introductory brokers" (the letter's term) are in compliance if they do not let customers in Ohio directly or indirectly access sports event contracts listed on designated contract markets (in our words, federally regulated exchanges).

What "suitability" means here

To hold a gambling licence in Ohio, a company and its key people must be judged suitable, and that judgment is not a one-off. "As you are aware, maintaining suitability is a continuing obligation of licensure," the letter says. It adds that working with an entity engaged in unlicensed sports gaming in Ohio "reflects on the licensee's character, integrity, honesty, and reputation" and "undermines public confidence in Ohio's regulated sports gaming and fantasy contest markets."

According to The Event Horizon and Legal Sports Report, which read the letter, the commission says it may reopen suitability investigations and could suspend or revoke the licences of companies that do not comply.

For readers, the practical point is that the letter reaches beyond sportsbooks to suppliers, integrity monitors that watch for suspicious betting, and the labs that test games and systems before they go live. Ohio is now asking those firms to choose between its regulated market and the prediction-market platforms it considers unlicensed.

How Ohio got here

Morrison said the letter follows guidance the commission issued in August 2025. After a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, reported by CDC Gaming as allowing Ohio to enforce its gaming laws against Kalshi, the OCCC sent cease-and-desist letters to ten prediction market companies with a 16 October deadline: Underdog, Gemini Titan, Coinbase, ProphetX, Novig, Robinhood, Polymarket, Plus500, Moomoo and Webull. Morrison told the meeting that those matters "remain under investigation." Polymarket has since sued state officials in federal court, arguing that Ohio's licensing rules violate the US Constitution; the commission says it will defend Ohio's sports gaming laws.

Other states are pushing back too. Missouri's attorney general has sent cease-and-desist letters to prediction markets, while at federal level the CFTC has adopted an interim rule saying bets with state-licensed casinos and sportsbooks are not swaps. Some gambling companies are moving the other way, such as the Tunica-Biloxi tribe's planned prediction-market app powered by Kalshi and Hacksaw's B2B prediction-markets platform under an MGA licence.