Uthmeier didn’t sign as 39 states and DC took on Kalshi at the Supreme Court

Florida is one of ten states not on the brief

On Oct. 7, Ohio, 38 other states and the District of Columbia asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear New Jersey’s appeal in Flaherty v. KalshiEX, No. 26-299, the fight over whether states can apply their sports-gambling laws to Kalshi’s sports contracts. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier did not sign: Florida is not on the brief’s signature pages, the word Florida appears nowhere in it, and through Oct. 20 the docket shows no Florida filing (amici brief; Supreme Court docket).

Florida was one of ten states that stayed off, with Alaska, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, Next Event Horizon reported Oct. 8, calling Texas and Florida “the largest and most notable not signing on”; New Jersey, the petitioner, is the 50th. CDC Gaming Reports also counted 39 states plus the District of Columbia, led by Ohio Attorney General Andrew Wilson (Next Event Horizon; CDC Gaming Reports).

Your stake: Florida’s sports betting runs through the Seminole compact, under which the state received $1.04 billion last budget year, and state economists forecast $1.14 billion for the year that began July 1 (News Service of Florida via Sun Sentinel; EDR).

The states call the question “exceedingly important”

The brief opens: “Federal and state courts are hopelessly confused and divided over an issue of immense importance: whether the Commodity Exchange Act preempts state sports-gambling laws.” One heading reads, “Whether the States have been stripped of their power to regulate gambling is exceedingly important to the States.” It says prediction markets take bets “from who will win the Dodgers-Yankees game to how many corner kicks Lionel Messi will take,” and that those markets “say that the States cannot apply sports-gambling laws to them because federal law supersedes the States’ authority.” It ends, “The Court should grant the Petition” (amici brief).

New Jersey is appealing an April 6 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which split 2-1 in holding that the state’s gaming regulators cannot block Kalshi’s sports event contracts: “Congress gave the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over trades on DCMs,” the opinion said. Judge David Porter wrote it, joined by Chief Judge Michael Chagares; Judge Jane Richards Roth dissented. New Jersey filed its petition Sept. 2. Kalshi’s response, first due Oct. 8, is now due Nov. 9; its counsel of record is Neal Kumar Katyal of Milbank (Supreme Court docket; The Block; Skadden).

Kalshi’s side: after the April ruling its CEO, Tarek Mansour, called it a “big win” and wrote, “People use prediction markets because they’re more fair, transparent, and reward being right.” Other briefs on the docket come from the American Gaming Association, the National Football League, 145 Indian tribes, former CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler and former Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, among others; the docket does not say which side each supports (The Block; Supreme Court docket).

The money on the record

Uthmeier’s office declined to explain Florida’s absence from the multistate brief, Politico reported. State records show Kalshi has given Florida committees and candidates $560,000 in 28 checks since Sept. 25, 2025, by our sum, its largest recipients the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, Friends of Jennifer Canady, Friends of Byron Donalds PAC, Friends of James Uthmeier and the Republican Party of Florida; $53,000 of it went to Uthmeier, in checks dated Sept. 25, 2025 and May 11, 2026. Both sides of Florida’s betting fight have given to him: the Seminole Tribe $53,000 since March 2025, and DraftKings’ DK Crown Holdings $25,000 in April 2025. No record ties any of these checks to Florida’s decision not to sign (Politico via Sunburn; Division of Elections; our arithmetic).

Our Kalshi total leaves out federal giving and any money sent through other entities. The Tribe, which pays the state for the exclusive right to take sports bets, is suing DraftKings, alleging its prediction markets break Florida’s gambling laws, Politico reported; the News Service of Florida called the compact payments ones “which the Tribe could suspend if its monopoly on sports betting is punctured” (Politico via Sunburn; News Service of Florida via Sun Sentinel).

Uthmeier is on the Nov. 3 ballot

Uthmeier, a Republican and formerly chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis, faces Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez for attorney general on Nov. 3. Rodriguez criticized the attorney general’s silence, Politico reported; it published no direct quote from him in the summary we read (WKMG News 6; Politico via Sunburn).

What comes next is Kalshi’s reply

Kalshi’s response to New Jersey’s petition is due Nov. 9, after which the justices decide whether to hear the case. State economists say “sports betting continues to grow at a significant rate in Florida.” Kalshi has not commented on Florida’s absence in anything we read (Supreme Court docket; EDR).