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If it feels like every month, there’s a brand-new state that is suing or attacking prediction markets, it’s because there is. The newest one joining the fray is Mississippi. This one’s an interesting example, too.
Betting in Mississippi is allowed, but almost entirely in person. The state doesn’t allow sports betting apps to offer services online. And there lies its issue with prediction markets. Top names like Kalshi and Robinhood work perfectly fine for Mississippi residents, who can lay money on outcomes like they would a betting app.
This dichotomy has caught the attention of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who joined a national coalition of attorneys all pushing back against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates the platforms at the federal level. Keep on reading, and we’ll tell you what’s going on!
Fitch Wants State Control
Fitch joined the other attorneys general on May 4. Like the rest, Fitch thinks Mississippi should have the right over this — not the feds.
“Mississippi, like many states, has carefully balanced competing interests to allow responsible sports betting here,” Fitch wrote in her May 4 press release. “The CFTC [Commodity Futures Trading Commission] should not upend that balance… and leave states with the responsibility for cleaning up the impacts of sports betting without the ability to regulate it on the front end.”
You get Fitch’s argument, right? Her state, after all, does allow sports betting, but it’s quite constrained without the online component. In legal sports betting states, the ones with fully online markets are huge. Just the friction of having to drive and bet in-person stops a lot of folks from doing it in states without online. And that’s what Mississippi probably wants.
The state doesn’t want to get the maximum amount of tax dollars out of its sports betting industry. Well, not at the cost of frictionless betting, which is a magnet for problem gambling issues.
Platforms like Kalshi get to sidestep Mississippi’s laws and regulations, though. Since they are designated as “event contracts”, they are governed like derivatives trading. That’s a CFTC thing, which goes through the federal government, not the state.
Of course, Fitch and the other state attorneys general don’t like that, hence the coalition and different state lawsuits. But for the first time in a long time, the federal government is starting to fight back. More on that in the next section.
The CFTC Is Not Backing Down
The CFTC finally got tired of state after state complaining and chastising them. The agency has repeatedly said that prediction markets — even the ones that offer sports contracts — are under its watch. It’s the reason why Kalshi and similar platforms continue to operate across all 50 states despite a growing mountain of lawsuits.
Speaking of lawsuits, the CFTC is now leveraging those, too. In April alone, the agency sued five states for attempting to regulate prediction markets. Two can play that game, right?
Now, Mississippi hasn’t caught a case from the CFTC yet. But… given this trend, they might be queuing up for one.
Did Prediction Markets Stop Mississippi From Expanding Sports Betting?
The 2026 Mississippi legislative session ended not too long ago. And the thing about this past year, there were two bills kicked around involving the betting industry. One bill tried to ban sweepstakes casinos from operating in the state, and the second tried to allow mobile sports betting. Neither passed.
Prediction markets played a role in the expanded sports betting bill from dying out, too. At the time, Sen. David Blount, who chairs the Senate gaming committee, basically said as much when the bill was in the discussion phase. More or less, he argued that if prediction markets are already offering national mobile betting without state taxes or state oversight, then traditional sportsbooks are going to lose market share before Mississippi ever legalizes them.
And he’s not necessarily wrong. But… he’s probably underestimating traditional betting apps like DraftKings and FanDuel. Both of them still have major brand awareness, dating back to 10 years ago when they first offered daily fantasy sports. You don’t flood every game and sports podcasts with ads — as both platforms have done — and not get recognized by the betting crowd.
Sure, we yap ad nauseam about Kalshi and Polymarket, but the reality is the average consumer is marginally aware of them. Certainly, compared to the traditional betting apps.
All this is to say, sports betting in Mississippi is still wide open, no matter what Blount says. Prediction markets are getting a bite at it right now due to ease of access, but it’s not a foregone conclusion that Mississippi users prefer this to apps. But it was an interesting comment regardless from Blount.
Anyways, to close this out, Mississippi is stuck in the middle. Mobile sportsbooks are still illegal. Prediction markets are still accessible. The CFTC says it controls the space. Fitch says the state should. Yadda yadda yadda. Until courts or federal regulators settle the argument, Mississippi’s betting market will remain exactly what it is now — constrained by state law on one side, blown open by prediction markets on the other.
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