BALTIMORE, MD (WBFF) — Baltimore City officials filed lawsuits Thursday accusing two prediction market operators of running illegal sports betting platforms and misleading consumers about whether their products are legal and regulated.
Mayor Brandon Scott and the Baltimore City Council filed the consumer protection actions in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City against Kalshi and Polymarket and their affiliated companies. The lawsuits allege the companies violated Baltimore’s Consumer Protection Ordinance by operating illegal, unlicensed sports-betting platforms and by misrepresenting the legality and regulatory status of their offerings.
According to the complaints, Kalshi and Polymarket allow Baltimore residents to wager on game winners, point spreads, point totals, player statistics and other propositions commonly offered by licensed sportsbooks. While the companies describe the wagers as “event contracts” or prediction-market trades, the complaints contend they function as sports bets and constitute unlawful gambling under Maryland law.
“These companies are running sportsbooks without licenses and betting that a new label will put them above the law,” Mayor Scott said. “It won’t. Baltimore will not let multibillion-dollar companies put profits over people and harm our communities through illegal gambling.”
The lawsuits allege Kalshi and Polymarket offer sports wagering in Baltimore without the licenses required under Maryland law, allowing them to compete with regulated sportsbooks while avoiding oversight, taxation, responsible-gambling requirements and consumer protections imposed on licensed operators. The complaints say the platforms offer many of the same wagers available through traditional online sportsbooks, including moneyline-style wagers, point spreads, totals, tournament outcomes and player-performance propositions, and that the platforms closely resemble online sportsbooks.
“Kalshi and Polymarket cannot circumvent Baltimore’s consumer protections by repackaging gambling as something else or claiming federal regulation puts them beyond the reach of our laws,” City Solicitor Ebony M. Thompson said. “The City will continue to use its consumer protection authority to stop deceptive and unlawful conduct and hold companies accountable when they put our residents at risk.”
The lawsuits also allege the companies market their platforms in ways that create a false or misleading impression that their offerings are lawful and appropriately regulated, while making gambling readily accessible to consumers. The city argues that conduct can expose vulnerable populations, including young adults and people with gambling addictions, to significant financial harm.
“Allowing prediction market companies to evade gambling laws would set a dangerous precedent far beyond Baltimore,” DiCello Levitt Founding Partner Adam Levitt said. “These companies cannot be permitted to use new terminology and new technology to operate outside the rules designed to protect consumers and communities.”
Baltimore is seeking civil penalties, injunctive relief, restitution for affected consumers, disgorgement of ill-gotten profits and other relief authorized by law under the city’s Consumer Protection Ordinance.
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