Between June 17 and August 14, 2026, a sports bettor named Bright transferred $315,353.94 to the event contract platform Kalshi, ultimately suffering a net loss of $308,781.62, according to court filings.
Bright transferred the funds in 253 separate debits from his checking account, as detailed in his lawsuit. Kalshi allegedly collected $5,589.05 in funding fees on those transfers. Bright made numerous wagers on sporting events, including professional baseball games and tennis matches.
Bright apparently put any winnings into new bets. His lawsuit alleges that Kalshi’s platform cycled his deposits through $14,396,457.30 in transactions. The platform assessed and retained $84,062.71 in trading fees on those transactions, which equaled 26.7 percent of everything Bright deposited, according to the complaint.
After all his bets, Bright’s net loss reached $308,781.62. His account was left with a balance of $983.27, according to court records. Seeking roughly two times his claimed net realized loss, Bright filed a lawsuit against KalshiEX and its parent organization, Kalshi Inc., citing Washington state’s statute on recovering gambling losses as well as a claim of unjust enrichment.
The contracts which Plaintiff mischaracterizes as gambling are event contracts offered on the Platform subject to the CEA, in conformance with the rules and regulations of the CFTC, the federal agency which has statutory authority to oversee the CEA,
Kalshi stated in its court filings.
Plaintiff alleges that his activity on the platform was gambling and that he ‘lost.’ He does not allege that anyone misled him about how the platform worked, what it charged, or the risk that any position might lose.
Kalshi argued that Bright’s alleged losses went to counterparties rather than to Kalshi itself. The platform stated that Bright’s positions were matched with counterparties and resolved according to the outcomes of the underlying events,
noting that the Complaint does not allege that KalshiEX or Kalshi Inc. was the counterparty to any of Plaintiff’s positions.
Kalshi describes itself as a neutral exchange platform with no financial stake in the outcome of any event, making its revenue by collecting fees on transactions. Yet, even though the company portrays itself as an unbiased facilitator that simply gathers transaction fees, it operates alongside an affiliated trading entity that makes bets on the service.
