Google Bans Prediction Market Ads in Ohio
The list of states in which prediction market ads are banned by Google is now two -- Nevada and Ohio.
Prediction market executives continue to contend that their platforms are exchanges overseen federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), even as state regulators and attorneys general assert their power to regulate them.
On June 2, prediction markets took a state-level loss from a higher, as in global, power: Google. The search engine, whose ever-evolving policies and algorithms set the tone for all online businesses by determining what products are put before customers, updated its policies to ban prediction market advertising in Ohio.
The move did not come at Ohio’s behest, according to state gaming regulators.
“The Ohio Casino Control Commission did not solicit any particular action from Google, but applauds Google for its efforts to ensure that marketing targeting Ohioans fully complies with Ohio law,” Andromeda Morrison, OCCC interim executive director, said in an email to Gambling Insider.
From the Google update: “In June 2026, Google will update our Prediction markets policy in the United States to prohibit the advertisement of prediction markets contracts and related products ads in Ohio.
Consequently, advertising of prediction markets and related products in Ohio is prohibited effective June 2, 2026.”
Two States on Google’s Prohibited List
In a policy announced in January, Google began allowing prediction market advertising in all states but Nevada.
Google cites “the inherent complexities, speculative nature, and unique regulatory classification involved in trading Prediction Market contracts and related products,” and notes that advertisers be “a licensed Prediction Market provider that holds all applicable local financial, commodity, and/or gaming licenses, including those required as part of Google’s certification process.”
According to Google’s terms and conditions, Nevada and Ohio are currently the only United States jurisdictions where prediction market advertising is prohibited, even though scores of states have filed cease-and-desist orders against Kalshi to stop prediction markets from operating within their state lines.
Kalshi is currently embroiled in 18 federal and state lawsuits defending its assertion of federal oversight, and the CFTC has taken a side, with the one-member panel suing seven different states that have attempted to shut down the platforms and their controversial sports event contracts.
Minnesota, where sports betting is not legal, in May became the first state to ban prediction markets.
In late May, the CFTC sued Rhode Island to block enforcement of a ban of Polymarket.
Google prediction market policy bans ads for “fixed-return contract,” “online gambling,” and online touting.
Ohio Continues Fighting Kalshi In Court
Ohio regulators and litigators continue to defend a legal sports betting industry that Gov. Mike DeWine has in recent months lamented publicly as a mistake. The term-limited Republican helped spearhead legalization in 2023, but has since bemoaned its social impacts.
Two days after the Google announcement, Ohio attorneys responded to a Kalshi lawsuit attempting to overturn its cease-and-desist order by attacking prediction markets’ claims that sports events contracts are “swaps,” or derivative contracts used as a hedging mechanism.
Ohio attorneys argued that allowing sports events contracts – which the OCCC considers illegal gambling – to be regulated as swaps at the federal level would render much of the language of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) meaningless.
Ohio initially sent cease-and-desist letters to Kalshi, Robinhood and Crypto.com in April 2025, prompting Kalshi to sue the OCCC and state attorney general’s office. A federal judge in Ohio subsequently denied that preliminary injunction request.
Related: Matt Schuler Discusses Retirement, Looks Back at Tenure with Ohio Casino Control Commission
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