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Washington State Targets Kalshi in Illegal Online Betting Lawsuit

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Washington State Targets Kalshi in Illegal Online Betting Lawsuit

Is Kalshi Legal in Washington State? AG Says No, Files Suit

The complaint, filed in King County Superior Court, targets Kalshi‘s binary event contracts, wagers priced between one cent and 99 cents that pay out $1 to winners and nothing to losers. Washington argues those contracts meet the state’s statutory definition of gambling under RCW 9.46.0237: “ staking or risking something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under the person’s control.”

Brown’s office is seeking a permanent injunction, full restitution for Washington residents’ losses, disgorgement of Kalshi’s profits, and civil penalties for each violation. Investigators also want a full accounting of every Washington user’s transactions.

The AG’s office did not limit its targets to sports betting. The complaint accuses Kalshi of offering markets on elections, Supreme Court cases, entertainment outcomes, public health data, and international conflicts. “For Kalshi, every event, every tragedy is nothing more than a potential way for Americans to risk their fortunes,” Brown said in a statement accompanying the filing.

Kalshi, founded in 2018 and publicly launched around 2021, operates as a CFTC-designated contract market for event contracts — a category of commodity derivatives. The company expanded aggressively into sports betting in 2025 and has marketed its platform as “legal betting in all 50 states.”

The company moved the case to federal court immediately after the filing, citing exclusive federal jurisdiction. A Kalshi spokesperson said Brown’s office had a scheduled meeting with Kalshi before filing suit and that going forward with the complaint was premature. Kalshi also disputed specific market claims in the complaint, saying it does not offer war markets as alleged.

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Washington has among the strictest gambling statutes in the country. Its 1889 state constitution prohibited gambling on state lands. The 1973 Gambling Act tightly limited most forms of wagering, and the 2006 legislation explicitly banned online gambling. State officials insist Kalshi operates outside all three frameworks.

Washington is not acting alone. At least 11 states have issued cease-and-desist orders against prediction market platforms. Arizona filed criminal charges against Kalshi in March 2026. Nevada obtained a temporary restraining order barring Kalshi from offering sports, politics, and entertainment markets, and a separate 60-day preliminary injunction covering Coinbase’s Kalshi-powered products. An Ohio federal judge ruled Kalshi must follow state gambling laws for sports betting.

Kalshi has also notched federal wins. Courts in New Jersey and Tennessee ruled in its favor. A case in Michigan involves rival platform Polymarket, which filed preemptively. Utah, where Kalshi sued to block a proposed ban, remains active.

The legal conflict centers on a direct clash between state police powers and federal commodities law. The CFTC has issued guidance on manipulation and is weighing additional rules. Trump administration CFTC Chair Brian Selig and prior agency amicus briefs have sided with federal preemption.

Legal experts tracking the cases say the disagreement could reach the U.S. Supreme Court. States argue prediction market platforms are sportsbooks operating without state licenses, targeting young adults through leaderboards, push notifications, and influencer promotions. Kalshi disputes that framing, saying its exchange is structurally different from state-regulated sportsbooks and casinos.

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Washington residents using Kalshi may lose access to the platform while litigation proceeds. The state’s restitution claim draws on the Recovery of Money Lost at Gambling Act, which allows consumers to reclaim gambling losses.

The case is in its earliest stages. The federal transfer ruling will determine which court hears the matter first.

FAQ 🔎

  • What is Kalshi being sued for in Washington? Washington AG Nick Brown alleges Kalshi operates an illegal online gambling service in violation of the state’s Gambling Act and Consumer Protection Act.
  • Is Kalshi legal in Washington State? Washington says no — the state is seeking a permanent injunction to block Kalshi from operating within its borders.
  • How does Kalshi respond to the Washington lawsuit? Kalshi moved the case to federal court, arguing it operates under exclusive CFTC jurisdiction that preempts state gambling laws.
  • What states have taken action against Kalshi? Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Ohio, and at least 11 other states have filed lawsuits, criminal charges, or cease-and-desist orders against Kalshi or rival prediction markets.
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Strategy Is No Longer Just Going to “Inoculate the Market,” Selling Crypto May Be Much More Common. Here’s What That Could Mean for the Stock | The Motley Fool

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Strategy Is No Longer Just Going to “Inoculate the Market,” Selling Crypto May Be Much More Common. Here’s What That Could Mean for the Stock | The Motley Fool

When Strategy (MSTR 0.69%) sold a modest amount of Bitcoin earlier this year, it was a noteworthy development given that the company’s business has centered around buying up as much of the cryptocurrency as it can, and vowing to never sell. And it often boasts of being the largest corporate holder of the digital currency.

The company brushed off the sale of 32 Bitcoins, with management saying it simply wanted to “inoculate the market.” Well, now it appears that Strategy is doing much more than just that, and there could be more significant cryptocurrency sales in the future.

Image source: Getty Images.

Strategy unveils a Bitcoin monetization program

On June 29, Strategy released a framework going forward that it says will “enhance liquidity, preserve long-term Bitcoin exposure, and support long-term value creation for shareholders.” Among the notable components is its Bitcoin monetization program.

Within that program, the company says it may sell some of its cryptocurrency holdings for multiple reasons, including to fund a USD reserve, fund dividends or interest expense, or to fund repurchases of digital credit securities or common stock.

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While the company says it remains committed to Bitcoin for the long term and it’s the company’s “primary treasury reserve asset,” it’s a significant change of course for Strategy, which was previously heavily against ever selling the digital asset.

Strategy Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(-0.69%) $-0.69

Current Price

$100.08

The stock is as risky and volatile as ever

Whether or not Strategy buys or sells Bitcoin doesn’t change the fact that this is a highly risky and speculative stock to own. While crypto fans may be disappointed in the company’s change in strategy, selling Bitcoin will likely not be enough to make the business any better or worse as an investment.

In just the past 12 months, the stock has plummeted a whopping 75% as volatility in digital assets has drastically weighed on its earnings, with the company incurring $12.8 billion in losses over the trailing 12 months, on revenue of $490 million.

That’s not likely to change significantly, even if Strategy offloads some of its crypto holdings, because with such a large exposure to Bitcoin, how the cryptocurrency performs will inevitably impact the company’s bottom line in a big way. This year, the leading cryptocurrency is down 28% as investor excitement around it has largely cooled off, which has proven disastrous for Strategy’s stock as well. And at this stage, there’s little reason to anticipate a recovery anytime soon.

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An Easy-to-Miss Radio Traffic Jam Is Behind Many Home WiFi Slowdowns

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An Easy-to-Miss Radio Traffic Jam Is Behind Many Home WiFi Slowdowns

Key Takeaways

Your WiFi can feel rock-solid at midnight and oddly sluggish by breakfast, even when you have not touched a single setting. The culprit is often outside your walls: a crowded slice of public radio spectrum where your router has to negotiate space with every nearby network, plus a grab bag of household gadgets that leak interference. Add peak-hours demand and the signal-blocking quirks of building materials and weather, and “slow internet” starts to look less like a billing issue and more like an invisible traffic problem you are forced to share.

When WiFi slows down without warning

One day your home WiFi feels snappy, the next it drags, even though your router hasn’t moved and your internet plan hasn’t changed. That swing is real, and it’s usually not your imagination or a “bad day” from your ISP. WiFi lives on shared airwaves, and those airwaves get crowded, noisy, and sometimes just plain finicky.

Think of your connection as a conversation in a busy room. Your laptop and router may be talking just fine, but the room itself can fill up fast with other chatter. What looks like a mystery slowdown is often the result of invisible competition and interference that changes hour by hour.

The battle of competing networks

Most homes still rely heavily on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi bands, which are unlicensed spectrum in the US. That “free for everyone” reality is convenient, but it also means your network shares space with your neighbors, their smart TVs, their work laptops, and every nearby router doing the same thing.

Congestion has a rhythm. During common work-from-home and school-from-home windows, especially 8-10 AM, and again in the evening 6-10 PM, more devices are streaming, video calling, syncing, and downloading updates. Even if you pay for fast broadband, your WiFi link can become the bottleneck when the local radio environment gets packed.

Interference inside your home

Your own house can sabotage you. A microwave is the classic culprit because it can leak noise near 2.4 GHz, exactly where many WiFi networks still operate. Older cordless phones, some baby monitors, and even dense clusters of Bluetooth gadgets can add more clutter, especially in smaller apartments where everything sits close together.

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Then there’s physics. Concrete, metal, and even water (think aquariums or thick pipes in walls) absorb and scatter radio signals. A router shoved behind a TV, tucked into a cabinet, or stuck in a far corner forces your devices to “hear” through more obstacles, lowering speeds and making dropouts more likely.

Weather, channels, and what you can do tonight

Environmental changes can matter too. Higher humidity and rain can slightly increase signal loss, and shifting temperatures can change how radio waves propagate around a neighborhood. You might never notice on its own, but paired with congestion it can tip a marginal connection into a frustrating one.

The 2.4 GHz band is also channel-limited. In the US there are 11 channels, but only 1, 6, and 11 don’t overlap. Many routers default to “auto channel,” so nearby networks can hop around trying to escape interference, sometimes creating instability. Practical fixes: prefer 5 GHz (or 6 GHz if you have WiFi 6E/7 gear), place the router centrally and higher up, and use a WiFi analyzer app to pick a less crowded channel instead of leaving it on auto.

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U.K.’s sanctions on cryptocurrency exchanges signal new focus on illicit digital financing – Compliance Week

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U.K.’s sanctions on cryptocurrency exchanges signal new focus on illicit digital financing – Compliance Week

Cryptocurrency exchanges believed to be financing Russia’s war in Ukraine have been sanctioned by the U.K. government in the first attempt to prevent evasion via “dark networks.” The move indicates a new focus on digital sanctions evasion, and compliance teams should expect these rules to develop further, potentially in the EU and other jurisdictions.


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Ruth Prickett graduated from Cambridge University with a BA hons in History and has specialized in business and finance journalism for the past 20 years. She was editor of Financial Management, the magazine…
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