Overview
The third of the three Nevada appeals the Ninth Circuit heard together, and the one that tests the distribution layer rather than the venue. Robinhood Derivatives, LLC is a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant — a broker routing event-contract orders to venues including KalshiEX, ForecastEx and Rothera — and it sued the Gaming Control Board, the Gaming Commission and the Attorney General in August 2025 for a permanent injunction and declaratory relief. The Nevada Resort Association intervened as a defendant. Chief Judge Andrew P. Gordon, the same judge who dissolved Kalshi’s Nevada injunction and turned away Crypto.com, heard argument on November 14, 2025 and denied the temporary restraining order on November 25, 2025. He then denied Robinhood an injunction pending appeal in December 2025.
The Ninth Circuit AFFIRMED on August 28, 2026, before Judges R. Nelson, Bade and Lee. Weight it correctly. The disposition is an unpublished memorandum — not precedent except as Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3 allows — and it carries almost no reasoning of its own. It resolves the appeal by pin cite to the opinion filed the same day in Assad: sports event contracts are not "swaps" under 7 U.S.C. § 1a(47)(A)(ii) (slip op. 41), are not transactions in excluded commodities (41–42), and Robinhood’s conflict- and field-preemption arguments fail (42–45). The panel also rejected the contention that Nevada "must bring a direct challenge to [the CFTC] under the APA" (18–20).
The district case was not resolved. Robinhood’s motion to stay proceedings below was denied, Nevada answered, and discovery has been running since — with the deadline extended to January 22, 2027.