Battle over prediction markets heads to U.S. Supreme Court

Published September 3, 2026 12:36 PM It was inevitable, and it is necessary.The battle over prediction markets officially has landed in the lap of the United States Supreme Court, which now has an opportunity to resolve the question of whether the various states have the authority to regulate the gambling products as, you know, gambling products.Via Reuters, New Jersey has asked the Supreme Court to overturn an April 2026 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for Third Circuit that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over so-called sports-related event contracts offered by Kalshi.Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reached the opposite result. The ensuing split in the two appeals courts becomes one of the key ingredients to getting the Supreme Court to take up the case.If that happens, the eventual decision would become the law of the land as to whether gambling through prediction markets is, or isn’t, gambling.