- Kalshi says it has 100,000 users in Hawaii, a state with no legal gambling.
- Sen. Lynn DeCoite is open to taxing the apps, while Rep. Scot Matayoshi plans to revive his ban bill.
- North Carolina is the only state where Kalshi has agreed to pay a tax.
HONOLULU – Even though gambling is illegal in Hawaii, Kalshi says it has 100,000 users in the state.
Earlier this year, Hawaii tried to shut prediction markets out of the state, but HB 2198 passed the House and then died in the Senate without getting a hearing.
Senator Lynn DeCoite told Honolulu TV station KHON2 that her initial reaction is that if prediction markets are already operating in Hawaii, the state should be collecting a tax from them.
Representative Scot Matayoshi, who wrote the failed ban, has said he will bring the bill back next year, and both lawmakers told the station that the Legislature will weigh banning and regulating the apps with sports gambling in Hawaii when the 2027 session opens in January.
Robert Denault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement, made the company’s usual case that a federally regulated exchange matching users against each other is a different product from a state-licensed legal sportsbook that profits when bettors lose.
If Hawaii follows the approach North Carolina took, a tax bill would not change Kalshi’s federal status, since it is already registered with the CFTC. Instead, the state would be accepting that registration as enough to make the platform legal in Hawaii without requiring a state license of its own.
