Kalshi and the Seminole Tribe paid Byron Donalds's PAC on the same day

Two sides of one betting fight paid the same committee

Kalshi, a New York company where people wager money on who wins elections, and the Seminole Tribe of Florida both paid Byron Donalds's PAC on Oct. 13. Donalds is the Republican candidate for governor in the Nov. 3 election, and the two givers are on opposite sides of a Supreme Court fight. President Donald Trump and outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis have endorsed Donalds, the Naples Republican, the Miami Herald reports. State campaign finance records and the PAC's own list of donations show both checks. No record ties either check to any vote, contract or other act by a public official.

Why it matters: Only the tribe can run sports betting in Florida under its gambling deal with the state, the Herald reports. The tribe paid the state about $1 billion under that deal last budget year. Kalshi can operate outside Florida's gambling laws, the Herald also reports, as long as federal law treats it as a financial exchange, a trading market like a futures exchange. New Jersey wants the Supreme Court to let states apply their gambling laws to Kalshi, and the Court has not said whether it will hear the case.

The story so far: On Oct. 7, 39 states and Washington, D.C., asked the Supreme Court to take up New Jersey's case against Kalshi. Florida did not join. On Oct. 8, 145 tribes and tribal groups, the Seminole Tribe among them, asked the Court to take the case and decide it this term. Five days later, Kalshi and the tribe paid the same PAC.

What's new: Kalshi's check was $250,000 and the tribe's was $500,000, both dated Oct. 13. Neither is the committee's biggest check since Oct. 9; Miami hedge fund executive Ken Griffin gave $5 million on Oct. 15.

What's next: Kalshi's response at the Supreme Court is due Nov. 9, six days after the Nov. 3 election.

Who's who

Byron Donalds is a Naples Republican congressman and his party's candidate for governor, endorsed by President Donald Trump and outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Miami Herald reports. He faces Democrat David Jolly on Nov. 3. His committee is Friends of Byron Donalds PAC. Kalshi Inc. of New York wrote the checks; a related company, KalshiEX, LLC, is the party in the Supreme Court case, and we use Kalshi for both only as the company's common name. The Seminole Tribe of Florida, based in Hollywood, holds the state's exclusive gambling agreement, the Herald reports. Jennifer Canady is a Lakeland Republican state representative slated to become House speaker after the 2028 elections, Jax Today reports. James Uthmeier is Florida's attorney general.

The checks, in two records

State campaign finance records list a check from Kalshi Inc. to Friends of Byron Donalds PAC dated Oct. 13, 2026, at 250000.00, with no unit printed. The committee's own contribution list, updated Oct. 21, shows the same check as $250,000.00. The state record lists Kalshi's occupation as financial exchange.

The same two records show a check from the Seminole Tribe of Florida to the committee dated the same day. The state lists it at 500000.00, and the committee's list shows $500,000.00. The state record lists the tribe's occupation as tribe.

The committee's list shows two earlier Kalshi checks: $25,000 dated Sept. 26, 2025, and $50,000 dated July 28, 2026. By our arithmetic, that makes $325,000 from Kalshi to the committee on its own list. The Herald reported in June that Kalshi gave the committee $25,000 last year.

We print no total for the tribe's giving to the committee, because the published counts do not agree. A check's date shows when it was written, not why. No record we read ties either check to any vote, contract or official act.

Kalshi is not the committee's biggest giver

Ken Griffin, the Miami hedge fund executive, gave the same committee $5 million dated Oct. 15, state records show, and the Herald reported the gift. It is the largest single check among the committee's receipts of $100,000 or more dated Oct. 9 to 23, by our reading of the state records. Those records hold no check dated after Oct. 23 yet, as of Oct. 25, 6:55 p.m. ET.

State records also list a check dated Oct. 15 from Betr Holdings, a Miami company the record calls a betting market company. The committee's own list, updated Oct. 21, shows the same check as $200,000.00.

The fight at the Supreme Court

New Jersey is asking the Supreme Court to hear its case against KalshiEX, LLC. On Oct. 7, attorneys general from 39 states and the District of Columbia, led by Ohio Attorney General Andrew Wilson, filed a brief, CDC Gaming Reports reported. It asks the Court to take the case and overturn the Third Circuit, the federal appeals court that sided with Kalshi.

Florida is not on that brief, and the word Florida appears nowhere in it. The newsletter Next Event Horizon counted Florida among ten states that did not join, calling Texas and Florida "the largest and most notable not signing on." We did not find a statement from Uthmeier's office on the brief in what we read for this story.

On Oct. 8, a brief for 145 Indian tribes and tribal organizations, with the Seminole Tribe of Florida on its list, asked the Court to "grant New Jersey's petition, decide the question presented this Term." It says, "Today's prospectors are so-called prediction markets." It says Kalshi "and its ilk" compete with tribal sports betting, "siphoning away governmental revenue Tribes need to sustain themselves."

The tribes' brief says two other federal appeals courts, the Sixth and Ninth Circuits, were right to reject what it calls Kalshi's argument. That argument, the brief says, is that one word, "swaps," in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act set aside decades of federal, state and Indian gaming law. The brief says, "The Third Circuit in this case nonetheless reached the opposite conclusion."

The Court has not decided whether to take the case. Kalshi's response, first due Oct. 8, was extended on Sept. 22 to Nov. 9. The docket shows no entries after the Oct. 8 briefs, as of Oct. 25, 6:57 p.m. ET. It shows no grant, denial or distribution for conference.

The tribe's money and the state's

State economists count $1.04 billion of tribal gaming revenue share paid to Florida in the 2025-26 budget year, up 27.8%. They forecast $1.14 billion for 2026-27. "Sports betting continues to grow at a significant rate in Florida," they write.

That same week in October, the tribe sued DraftKings and its chief executive, Jason Robins, in Broward County Circuit Court, CBS12 reported. The suit targets DraftKings' Pick6 product and its Sports and Casino app and argues they are sports betting that breaks Florida law. DraftKings describes parts of the service as prediction markets or event contracts, CBS12 reported. The tribe's suit is against DraftKings, not Kalshi.

State records show a Kalshi check to a Lakeland lawmaker

State records show one more Kalshi check this month. Friends of Jennifer Canady, the committee of the Lakeland Republican, received a check from "KALSHI, INC." dated Oct. 15. The record prints 100000.00 with no unit, which we read as $100,000. The row lists the giver's occupation as "PARIMUTUEL."

Only the state record shows this check, as of Oct. 25, 6:55 p.m. ET; we found no second source for it. Canady was chosen in 2023 for the House speakership starting with the 2028-2030 term, The Ledger reported, "assuming she is re-elected three more times and Republicans retain their decisive advantage in the Florida House." No record ties the check to any vote.

What Donalds has said about prediction markets

Donalds gave an interview on Oct. 17 that Bitcoin.com News published Oct. 23. He said: "But if you just have a marketplace where people take two sides of an issue, that's a derivative contract, just like oil futures or orange juice futures or anything else."

He also said: "I largely think the CFTC is probably going to win out, but I could see some state regulatory guidance, probably much more around consumer protection." The CFTC is the federal regulator of futures markets. These are his stated views, and no record ties them to either check.

In June, the Herald reported that Kalshi "touted Byron Donalds' chances of winning Florida's gubernatorial race" on social media.

Their side

Kalshi spokesperson Dani Lever told the Herald in June: "We post about all candidates when their odds change." On the political giving of Kalshi's co-founders, she told NOTUS in July: "Like many leaders at U.S. regulated companies, ours support candidates on both sides of the aisle."

Gates McGavick, the Donalds campaign's communications director, told the Herald in June that Kalshi's post "was simply stating reality." The tribe's view of prediction markets is in its Supreme Court brief, quoted above.

Kalshi, the tribe, the Donalds campaign and the Canady committee did not address these checks in anything we read.

What's next

Kalshi's response to New Jersey's petition is due Nov. 9, and then the justices decide whether to hear the case. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Sources we read

Florida Division of Elections contribution records, $100,000 and up from Oct. 9, read Oct. 25. Friends of Byron Donalds PAC contribution list, updated Oct. 21. U.S. Supreme Court docket 26-299, read Oct. 25, and the Oct. 7 and Oct. 8 amici briefs. Miami Herald via Yahoo News, June 15 and Oct. 24. CDC Gaming Reports, Oct. 7. Next Event Horizon, Oct. 8. Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research, Indian gaming summary, Aug. 7. CBS12, Oct. 8. Bitcoin.com News, Oct. 23. NOTUS via The Washington Sun, July 7. The Ledger via Yahoo News, July 6, 2023. Jax Today, Oct. 9, 2025. OFM's earlier chapter, "Uthmeier didn't sign as 39 states and DC took on Kalshi at the Supreme Court," Oct. 21: oldfloridamoney.com/story/uthmeier-kalshi-supreme-court-brief-seminole-compact.