Michigan secures Polymarket halt on sports contracts by 25 November

The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) announced on 28 October that QCX LLC, doing business as Polymarket US, had agreed to stop offering new sports-related event contracts to Michigan customers and close all remaining open positions by the end of the day Eastern time on 25 November 2026. The US District Court for the Western District of Michigan approved the stipulation.

For compliance teams, the agreement creates a clear operational obligation: Polymarket must prevent new Michigan sports contracts and wind down open contracts held by Michigan residents unless customers close them voluntarily before the deadline. In return, Michigan agreed not to take enforcement action against Polymarket US while it remains compliant. The MGCB’s position is that firms offering sports wagering to Michigan residents need a Michigan licence.

A conditional resolution to pending litigation

Polymarket US sued Michigan officials in March 2026, seeking to block enforcement of the state’s gaming laws. The federal court denied the company’s request for a temporary restraining order in March and its preliminary-injunction motion in June. Polymarket’s appeal remains pending before the Sixth Circuit.

The agreement followed a 10 September notice from the Michigan Department of Attorney General warning that it would take legal action if Polymarket did not stop offering sports-related event contracts to Michigan residents. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the state was ensuring that gaming takes place through “licensed and regulated ways” and with the protections and safeguards required by law.

The MGCB describes the products as sports wagering offered by unlicensed operators under the description of federally regulated “prediction markets”. The stipulation does not end the Sixth Circuit appeal, but it removes new Michigan sports contracts from the market and sets a fixed date for closing the remaining positions.

Atlas reads the deal as a practical regulatory win rather than a resolution of the wider federal-state classification dispute. Michigan has obtained the operational outcome it sought without waiting for the appeal to decide whether these contracts fall within state gaming laws.

Michigan’s fourth sports-contract action

Polymarket is the fourth operator against which Michigan has secured an agreement or court order halting sports-related event contracts. The MGCB lists Kalshi, Robinhood and Coinbase alongside Polymarket. The regulator previously announced a Coinbase agreement requiring new sports contracts to stop and remaining positions to close by 10 October, while a court order blocked KalshiEX from offering unlicensed internet sports betting.

The approach combines negotiated shutdowns with court action. In Atlas’s view, that matters for operators relying on a prediction-market structure: even where the federal characterisation of an event contract is contested, a state may seek to stop local distribution, preserve its enforcement position and use licensing as the practical compliance test.

Michigan is not alone in challenging the model. On 5 May, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board filed comments with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, arguing that sports contracts offered by designated contract markets such as Kalshi were unlicensed sports wagering under state law. On 26 May, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti asked the Sixth Circuit to reverse a lower-court ruling that had blocked enforcement of Tennessee’s Sports Gaming Act against KalshiEX.

Polymarket’s Michigan shutdown deadline is 25 November 2026, when all remaining covered positions must be closed by the end of the day Eastern time.