Ninth Circuit Denies Kalshi Rehearing in Nevada Sports Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Nov. 4 denied KalshiEX LLC’s petitions for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc in KalshiEX v. Assad, No. 25-7516, according to a one-page order filed by the court clerk.

Circuit Judges Ryan D. Nelson, Bridget S. Bade and Kenneth K. Lee “unanimously vote[d] to DENY the petition for rehearing and petition for rehearing en banc,” the order says. It adds that the full court was advised of the en banc petition “and no judge has requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc.”

August sports-contract ruling left in place

The denial leaves standing the panel’s Aug. 28 opinion, which affirmed in part a Nevada district court order dissolving a preliminary injunction that had blocked state regulators from acting against Kalshi, RG reported. The August decision held that Kalshi had not shown the Commodity Exchange Act likely preempts Nevada gaming rules as applied to the company’s sports event contracts, concluding those contracts were sports bets rather than “swaps” under the statute, according to RG.

The panel also sent the case back for the district court to consider Nevada’s challenges to Kalshi’s election contracts, RG said. The Nov. 4 order does not reopen that analysis; it declines both forms of rehearing under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 40.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who led the state’s fight against prediction-market sports contracts, called the August decision “a major victory for Nevada” and said “sports betting does not become something else simply because a company calls it an ‘event contract,'” according to RG. Ford won Nevada’s governor’s race on Tuesday, RG reported.

Path to the Supreme Court

Under Supreme Court Rule 13, a petition for a writ of certiorari is generally due within 90 days after a federal appeals court judgment; when a timely rehearing petition is filed, that clock runs from the date rehearing is denied, RG reported. Related petitions already before the justices include New Jersey’s request to review a Third Circuit ruling favoring Kalshi and Robinhood Derivatives’ request to review the Ninth Circuit’s Aug. 28 decision in its own Nevada case, according to RG.

Developing: No Supreme Court petition in KalshiEX v. Assad has been filed; the 90-day window began with the Nov. 4 denial.

Sources: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit order, RG.