VIA USPS PRIORITY MAIL WITH CERTIFIED MAIL – RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED AND VIA EMAIL
Kalshi Inc.
Attn: Legal Department
416 West 13th Street, Room 207
New York, NY 10014
legal@kalshi.com
support@kalshi.com
Re: Notice of Individual Dispute Concerning Gambling Losses Incurred on Kalshi’s Unlicensed Sports-Wagering Platform
To Whom It May Concern:
I am providing this Notice of Dispute to notify Kalshi Inc., and its affiliated entities responsible for the challenged conduct, including KalshiEX LLC, Kalshi Klear LLC, Kalshi Klear Inc., and Kalshi Trading LLC (collectively, “Kalshi”), of my individual dispute concerning the money I wagered and lost on Kalshi’s online and app-based platform, which Kalshi markets as a “prediction market” offering “event contracts” but which I contend operates as an unlicensed, illegal sports-wagering platform. This dispute concerns wagers I placed during the period from approximately {answer_6} through {answer_7}.
Nature and Basis of Dispute
I maintained an account with Kalshi and placed wagers on Kalshi’s platform during the period identified in this Notice. Kalshi markets its platform to consumers as a “prediction market” on which users trade “event contracts,” and represents that its offerings constitute legal “trading” available in all 50 states. I contend that Kalshi in fact operates an unlicensed sports-wagering platform. Through the platform, consumers place bets on the outcomes of sporting events, individual player and team metrics, and multi-leg combinations that, I contend, function as and are materially indistinguishable from the wagers offered by licensed casinos and sportsbooks. Kalshi titles its own sports pages “Odds & Predictions,” displays live scores and play-by-play alongside the wagering surface, and organizes the wagers under the headings “Game Lines,” “Moneyline,” “Spread,” “Point Total,” “Player Props,” “Team Props” and “Game Props,” including same-game and cross-sport combination wagers. The order ticket on which a position is priced contains a field that Kalshi itself labels “Odds.” Kalshi’s own publicly posted documentation for automated agents states that “[b]ecause Kalshi is federally regulated under the Commodity Exchange Act, it can offer sports-related event contracts in states where sports betting is prohibited.” Yet Kalshi does not hold a state sports-wagering license authorizing it to offer sports betting to consumers.
Kalshi’s characterization of these transactions as “event contracts” does not change their character or the fact that they function as wagers on sporting events. Kalshi profits from these transactions, including through the fees it charges and, on information and belief, through its own and affiliated participation in these markets, including by its wholly owned affiliate, Kalshi Trading LLC, and institutional market makers that provide liquidity on the platform, including Susquehanna Government Products, LLLP. Although Kalshi advertises that it is “not the House,” that consumers trade “peer-to-peer,” and that there is “no house,” I contend that Kalshi’s platform operates in a manner materially indistinguishable from an unlicensed sportsbook.
I relied on Kalshi’s representations that its platform offered lawful “trading” of “event contracts” when I funded my account and placed wagers. If I had known that Kalshi was operating an unlicensed, unlawful sports-wagering platform, I would not have deposited funds or placed wagers with Kalshi. As a direct result of Kalshi’s conduct, I lost money that I wagered on the platform and suffered actual economic injury.
I contend that Kalshi’s conduct violated applicable state gambling and gambling-loss-recovery statutes, consumer-protection, unfair-business-practices, deceptive-trade-practices, and false-advertising statutes, and common-law principles, including those of the state in which I reside and any other jurisdiction whose laws may apply. Among other things, Kalshi allegedly (i) operated an unlicensed and unlawful gambling or sports-wagering platform and accepted and profited from unlawful wagers; (ii) misrepresented unlawful sports wagering as legal “trading” or “investing” and as “peer-to-peer” activity conducted with “no house”; and (iii) failed to disclose the manner in which its markets operate, including its own and its affiliates’ participation in those markets.
In addition, I contend that Kalshi was unjustly enriched by accepting and retaining the money I wagered and lost, together with the fees Kalshi charged on my wagers, on an unlawful platform. Because my agreements to place wagers or purchase “event contracts” from Kalshi are void and unenforceable as contrary to law and public policy, Kalshi should return to me, in equity and good conscience, all amounts I lost and all fees I paid.
This Notice concerns all wagering losses, amounts wagered and lost, fees paid, restitutionary amounts, damages, and other relief arising from Kalshi’s conduct relating to its platform, its “event contracts,” and related disclosures, communications, marketing, and wagering practices that may not yet have been identified. I reserve the right to supplement or amend this Notice as additional information becomes available.
Relief Sought
I seek all relief available under applicable law, including restitution, disgorgement, an accounting, statutory and enhanced damages, injunctive and equitable relief, attorneys’ fees, arbitration fees, costs, prejudgment and postjudgment interest, and any additional relief available under law, contract, arbitration rules, or equity.
I demand reimbursement of my net losses from the challenged wagers and all fees Kalshi charged in connection with those wagers, together with all statutory, restitutionary, equitable, and other monetary relief available under applicable law. The precise amount of my demand cannot presently be calculated without records in Kalshi’s possession concerning my account, deposits and withdrawals, wager and transaction history, amounts wagered and lost, and fees charged. I reserve the right to quantify and supplement this demand upon receipt of those records.
Informal Resolution
I am providing this Notice in good faith to afford Kalshi an opportunity to resolve this dispute before formal proceedings become necessary. I am willing to engage in good-faith resolution discussions during the 30 days following Kalshi’s receipt of this Notice. If the dispute is not resolved, I am prepared to pursue arbitration and any other available remedy, in a forum and under rules to be determined consistent with applicable law.
Nothing in this Notice constitutes a concession or waiver concerning the existence, formation, assent to, notice of, applicable version, applicability, scope, interpretation, or enforceability of any arbitration agreement, dispute-resolution provision, class-action waiver, delegation provision, or related procedural requirement that Kalshi may invoke, including the arbitration provisions of the Kalshi Rulebook and any procedures or conditions governing the initiation, administration, or resolution of a dispute. I expressly reserve all arguments concerning the proper arbitration forum, provider, rules, procedures, fee allocations, and administration of any arbitration, including any argument that Kalshi may not serve as, select, or control the arbitral forum or panel adjudicating my claims and any argument that Kalshi’s Rulebook arbitration procedures are unconscionable or otherwise unenforceable. I also expressly reject and do not consent to any unilateral amendment or modification of any agreement, terms, conditions, rulebook, or dispute-resolution provisions unless I affirmatively agreed in a separate, signed writing. I further reserve all arguments that any purported requirement has been satisfied or substantially complied with, waived or forfeited, excused, inapplicable, or unenforceable. Nothing in this Notice waives any claim, remedy, defense, objection, or right to proceed in any forum otherwise available under applicable law.
This Notice is based on the information currently available and is not intended as an exhaustive statement of all facts, claims, theories, or remedies. I reserve the right to supplement this Notice as additional information becomes available.
Kalshi should take reasonable steps to preserve documents and electronically stored information relevant to this dispute, including information concerning my account and account activity; my deposits, withdrawals, wagers, transactions, positions, amounts wagered and lost, and fees charged; the “event contracts” and sports-wagering markets offered on the platform; Kalshi’s betting-line, pricing, request-for-quote, and market-making data and arrangements, including those involving Kalshi Trading LLC and any third-party market makers; Kalshi’s marketing and advertising materials, including representations that its offerings are “legal,” available in all 50 states, “peer-to-peer,” or involve “no house”; the Kalshi Member Agreement, Rulebook, terms of use, and all prior versions; disclosures; website and in-app content; and communications with users.
If Kalshi considers this Notice deficient in any manner, please notify my attorneys so that they may consider and respond during the informal-resolution process.
I authorize Kalshi to communicate with my counsel identified below and to produce to them all records and information associated with me that are reasonably necessary to evaluate and resolve this dispute.
Please direct all communications concerning this matter to my counsel identified below.
Sincerely,
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