Nevada sportsbooks are taking their first football season after Kalshi's August 12 geofence deadline while three prediction-market petitions wait at the Supreme Court

Nevada books took $403.0 million in sports wagers in August, 11.4% less than a year earlier, in the first Gaming Control Board report to cover days after Kalshi's August 12 geofence deadline. The Board's September and October reports, the first full months of football, are expected by the end of November.

The desk · Oct 16, 2026

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August handle fell 11.4% in the first Board report covering days after the geofence deadline

Kalshi agreed in July to geofence Nevada out of its sports, election and entertainment contracts by August 12 or pay the Nevada Gaming Control Board $120,000 a day, under an injunction a Carson City court issued on May 18 (CDC Gaming). On August 14 the Board told the court that its investigators had still bought those contracts from inside Nevada after the deadline; Kalshi said the investigators had misrepresented their residence and that it had geofenced the state as requested (The Nevada Independent). On August 28 the Ninth Circuit ruled 3-0 that Nevada's gaming laws apply to the sports-event contracts of Kalshi, Crypto.com and Robinhood (Gaming Control Board).

The Board's August revenue report puts Nevada's sports handle at $403.0 million, down 11.4% from $455.0 million in August 2025, and win at $32.6 million, down 22.5%. Mobile wagers came to $323.7 million, down 3.9%, and made up 80.3% of handle, the highest share in the 32 monthly reports the desk read, from January 2024; the next highest was 78.1% in April 2025. Wagers at sportsbook counters and kiosks fell 32.8%, from $118.1 million to $79.3 million.

Football handle fell 62.5%, to $37.9 million from $101.0 million. College football's Week 1 fell entirely in September in 2026, after overlapping August in 2025. In 2025, Week 1 ran from August 28 to September 1 (FBSchedules). In 2026, FCS games began on August 27 and the FBS Week 0 games on August 29 (FOX Sports), and Week 1 ran from September 3 to 7 (FBSchedules). Baseball, August's largest sport, fell 3.8% to $205.2 million; basketball rose 21.2% to $41.7 million and other sports 10.2% to $116.7 million.

The August figures cover the whole month, 19 days of it after the deadline. The Board's report does not isolate the geofence's effect from the sports calendar or other influences on betting, and it does not count wagers placed outside licensed Nevada books.

Handle was lower than a year earlier in five of the seven months before the deadline

From January to July, Nevada books took $4.27 billion in sports wagers, down 2.3% from $4.37 billion a year earlier, while win rose 3.7% to $316.7 million. The Nevada Independent reported the same handle total and changes on September 9. Handle fell from a year earlier in each month from January to May, then rose 16.5% in June and 15.5% in July.

Basketball handle was lower than a year earlier in all 5 months from January to May; in March it fell 15.5%, to $562.7 million from $665.6 million. Baseball handle was lower in all 5 months from April to August, by 26.5% in April and 23.2% in July.

June and July rose with the Board's row for other sports, every sport outside football, basketball, baseball and hockey; Covers lists soccer, tennis, MMA, boxing, auto racing and golf in it. That row took $229.0 million in June and $224.0 million in July, against $111.8 million and $107.1 million a year earlier, while the World Cup ran from June 11 to July 19 in the United States, Canada and Mexico (MLS). Outside that row, handle fell 9.1% in June and 16.7% in July, and it was lower than a year earlier in all 8 months of 2026 the Board has reported.

From April to late November 2025, a federal injunction barred the Board from acting against Kalshi, which it had accused of running an unlicensed sports betting business in Nevada (Covers). Judge Andrew Gordon dissolved the injunction, as the Board told licensees on November 25, 2025 (Board notice). In February, the month of Super Bowl LX, handle fell 4.1%, and Nevada books took $133.8 million on the game, the lowest Super Bowl handle since 2016 (CasinoBeats).

Three petitions from the prediction-market cases are waiting at the Supreme Court

The Third Circuit ruled for Kalshi against New Jersey on April 6, 2026, and the Ninth Circuit ruled against Kalshi, Crypto.com and Robinhood on August 28. New Jersey petitioned the Supreme Court on September 2 in Flaherty v. KalshiEX, No. 26-299. Robinhood followed on September 10 (No. 26-338) and Crypto.com, as North American Derivatives Exchange, on September 11 (No. 26-344), both from their Nevada losses. Kalshi's response in No. 26-299 is due November 9, and Nevada's responses are due November 13 and November 16.

Ohio, 38 other states and the District of Columbia filed a brief supporting review on October 7, and the NFL and the American Gaming Association filed on October 8. KTNV reported on October 10 that the Court is not expected to decide whether to take the case until December.

Kalshi has also asked the Ninth Circuit for a rehearing, and in a September 25 letter asked it to hold that request until the Commodity Futures Trading Commission revises its rules; Nevada's counsel, Nicole Saharsky of Mayer Brown, opposed the delay (CDC Gaming). On October 9 the CFTC proposed defining event contracts, sports contracts included, as swaps, with comments due 30 days after the proposal appears in the Federal Register (CFTC).

Nevada's regulators, officials and sportsbook operators have put their positions on record

After the Ninth Circuit ruling, Board chairman Mike Dreitzer said of the contracts: "This is sports betting and needs to be properly regulated by the state." Governor Joe Lombardo said in the same release that prediction markets offering sports-event contracts "constitute gambling and must comply with Nevada's gaming laws" (Gaming Control Board). Attorney General Aaron Ford called the ruling "a major victory for Nevada" (KOLO), and his office appears for Nevada on both Nevada petitions, with Mayer Brown as counsel of record on No. 26-344.

Joe Asher, chief executive of Boomer's Sportsbook, told Yogonet he could not put a number on what prediction markets had cost Boomer's in handle, "but there is clearly an impact." Caesars Digital president Eric Hession told The Nevada Independent that prediction markets are sports betting, and the paper reported that MGM Resorts and Caesars stayed out of prediction markets, which would have put their Nevada licenses at risk. At G2E, MGM's Bill Hornbuckle said prediction markets are hurting the industry (the desk's G2E report).

Nevadans elect a governor on November 3. The major-party nominees are Lombardo, the Republican incumbent, and Ford, the Democratic attorney general (The Green Papers). The Legislature's 84th session begins on February 1, 2027 (Nevada Legislature).

The Board's September and October reports come next, with the first full football months after the deadline

The Board announces no release dates. Its June report came out on July 28, and the desk's collector picked up the August report on October 1, so the September report is expected in late October and the October report in late November. Both months will be set against September and October 2025, when the federal injunction kept the Board from acting against Kalshi. The desk will update this report with each of them, and again when the Court acts on the petitions.

The desk could not confirm Kalshi's Nevada volume or a ruling on the Board's request for fines

The desk found no trading volume by state from Kalshi, Crypto.com or Robinhood, so it has no figure for what Nevada users traded before the deadline or trade now. Kalshi's published figures are national, such as the $582.1 million in college football trading it reported for the four-day opening weekend (The Nevada Independent).

The desk found no ruling on the Board's August 14 request for $120,000 a day, in its news archive or in the reports it read through October 15. The Board reports mobile wagers for all sports together, so mobile handle by sport is unavailable.

In the desk's message-board archive, 13 of 64,551 posts and comments name Kalshi, Polymarket or prediction markets, too few to show how Nevada bettors responded.

The desk derived handle from the Board's win and win percent

The figures come from the statewide table of the Board's monthly Gaming Revenue Report, which prints win and win percent for each sport and for mobile wagers; the press release the desk's economy page reads carries win by area only. Handle is win divided by win percent, as trade outlets derive it. The desk read 32 reports, January 2024 to August 2026.

In every report the sports rows add up to the Sports Pool row within the Board's rounding to the thousand dollars, and the statewide total agrees with the Board's press release, to the same rounding, in the 3 months the desk holds both. For the 20 months with a year-earlier report, each month's win matches the earlier report to within 0.28% once the Board's printed change is applied, which also dates the June and July 2025 reports, posted without headings. The derived handle is within 0.04% of the April and January-to-July figures Covers and The Nevada Independent published. Covers printed June 2026 handle as $587.6 million; the Board's figures give $578.7 million, and both give the 16.5% rise.

The desk's news archive holds 287 prediction-market stories published from August 1 to October 15. Reading the 62 that name Nevada or the Supreme Court, the desk counted 36 on Nevada's courts, regulators, officials or operators and 28 on the Supreme Court petitions; a second reader, a model reading the same stories without those labels, agreed on 98.4% and 100% of them.

Sources

• Nevada Gaming Control Board: Gaming Revenue Information, monthly revenue reports, January 2024 to August 2026
• Nevada Gaming Control Board: Monthly Revenue Report, August 2026
• Nevada Gaming Control Board: Ninth Circuit Rules in Favor of Nevada (Aug. 28)
• Nevada Gaming Control Board: Notice 2025-100, KalshiEx and Robinhood Update (Nov. 25, 2025)
• Supreme Court docket No. 26-299, Flaherty v. KalshiEX
• Supreme Court docket No. 26-338, Robinhood Derivatives v. Dreitzer
• Supreme Court docket No. 26-344, North American Derivatives Exchange v. Nevada
• CFTC: Release 9310-26, proposed rulemaking on event contracts in the definition of swap (Oct. 9)
• CDC Gaming: Kalshi to stop accepting Nevada wagers by Aug. 12 or risk $120,000-a-day penalty (July 26)
• The Nevada Independent: Control board: Kalshi should pay $120K per day for noncompliance with the court (Aug. 15)
• The Nevada Independent: Federal appeals court allows Nevada to ban Kalshi and other prediction markets (Aug. 28)
• The Nevada Independent: Football is back. So are prediction markets, but not in Nevada (Sept. 9)
• The Nevada Independent: Lombardo, Ford tied in Nevada governor's race, Dem poll shows (July 22)
• Covers: Nevada double-digit YoY handle decline continues in April (May 29)
• Covers: Nevada sportsbooks see significant handle, revenue increases in June (July 31)
• Covers: Kalshi dealt legal setback in Nevada 'sports betting' dispute (Nov. 25, 2025)
• CasinoBeats: Nevada Super Bowl handle lowest since 2016 (Feb. 10)
• CDC Gaming: Nevada attorney opposes Kalshi's bid to delay rehearing due to CFTC rulemaking (Oct. 4)
• KOLO: Attorney Gen. Aaron Ford announces courtroom victory (Aug. 29)
• KTNV: Millions of dollars in Nevada gaming tax revenue at risk over prediction markets (Oct. 10)
• Yogonet: Joe Asher on Boomer's first year and prediction markets (Aug. 24)
• Yogonet: Gaming regulators urge US Supreme Court to hear Kalshi case (Oct. 8)
• FBSchedules: College football schedule 2025, Week 1
• FBSchedules: College football schedule 2026, Week 1
• MLS: 2026 World Cup key dates
• The Green Papers: Nevada 2026 general election
• Nevada Legislature: calendar, 84th session