Kalshi South Carolina: A 1710 Law Now Aimed at It

Kalshi South Carolina is being challenged with a law older than the United States. No state agency has sued Kalshi here and no court has ordered it to stop, but a private plaintiff is suing under a British gambling statute from 1710, and the governor's office has floated arrest. This page covers what South Carolina law actually says, who is suing over what, and what none of it has actually done yet.

Legal status in South Carolina

South Carolina bans gambling more broadly than almost any other state. The state constitution, Article XVII, Section 7, prohibits lotteries and most forms of gambling outright, carved out only for the state-run Education Lottery and narrow charitable exceptions added by later amendment; the general criminal gambling statute, S.C. Code Ann. § 16-19-10, makes betting on games or wagers a crime on top of that. There is no sports betting statute to point to because there is no legal sports betting market: South Carolina has never licensed a single retail or online sportsbook, and because the constitution itself bans gambling expansion, lawmakers cannot simply pass a statute to open one — any legalization needs a voter-approved constitutional amendment, not just a bill. S.444, carried over from the 2025 session, got the furthest any sports-betting bill has gotten in state history when the Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee held a hearing on February 18, 2026; a five-member subcommittee heard about two hours of testimony and did not vote. Kalshi's presence complicated that hearing directly — lawmakers questioned how a bill meant to license sportsbooks should treat a federally regulated exchange already taking sports contracts from South Carolina residents. Gov. Henry McMaster opposes legalization and, through spokesperson Brandon Charochak, has said prediction markets are no different from sports betting and that "people who are facilitating these markets in South Carolina should be put on notice that they can be arrested and subject to criminal action" — a public threat, not a filed charge; no arrest or state prosecution of Kalshi has followed it. The real legal pressure so far has come from private plaintiffs, not the state. South Carolina Gambling Recovery LLC, backed by Tampa-based Veridis Management, filed suit against Kalshi and Robinhood in the Oconee County Court of Common Pleas in June 2025, invoking the Statute of Anne, a 1710 British law that lets a losing gambler — or after three months, essentially anyone — sue the winning side of an illegal wager for multiplied damages, paired with South Carolina's own recovery statute, S.C. Code Ann. § 32-1-10. Kalshi and Robinhood removed both cases to the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina in October 2025 (Nos. 8:25-cv-12859 and 8:25-cv-12867), where they remain pending as of this writing, part of a wider pattern of nearly identical Gambling Recovery LLC suits filed against Kalshi in other states. In July 2026 a separate Charleston County resident sued DraftKings and Polymarket, not Kalshi, on the same illegal-gambling theory, showing the private-suit strategy is spreading to other platforms rather than converging into one state case. Net effect: two centuries-old and modern-but-obscure civil statutes are doing the work no South Carolina regulator or attorney general has done, and Kalshi keeps operating in the state while all of it plays out.

State gambling authority: None dedicated to sports wagering — South Carolina has no gaming commission because it has never licensed a sportsbook; enforcement of the general gambling ban falls to local solicitors and the Attorney General under S.C. Code Ann. § 16-19-10

No other state on this site is being fought over with an act of Parliament. South Carolina is: a private plaintiff is suing Kalshi under a gambling-recovery law passed in 1710, three years before South Carolina existed as anything but a British colony, and the current governor’s office is the one talking about arrests — not a regulator, not the attorney general.

A State That Never Licensed a Sportsbook

Start with what South Carolina doesn’t have: any legal sports betting market at all, retail or online. The state constitution, Article XVII, Section 7, bans lotteries and most gambling outright, with narrow carve-outs added later for the state Education Lottery and charitable games. The general criminal gambling statute, S.C. Code Ann. § 16-19-10, backs that up. Because the ban is written into the constitution, lawmakers can’t legalize sports betting with an ordinary bill — it takes a voter-approved amendment, a higher bar than nearly every other state on this site has to clear.

South Carolina’s gambling law, at a glance:

S.C. Constitution, Art. XVII, § 7 — bans lotteries and most gambling
S.C. Code Ann. § 16-19-10 — general criminal gambling statute
No sportsbook has ever been licensed in the state
Legalizing sports betting requires a constitutional amendment, not just a statute
S.444 got its first committee hearing Feb. 18, 2026 — the furthest any such bill has gone

Is Kalshi Legal in South Carolina? The Governor Says No; No Court Has Said Anything

S.444’s hearing this year ran straight into Kalshi, which has offered sports event contracts in South Carolina since early 2025 under its federal CFTC designation, with no state license and no state case law addressing it. Lawmakers on the subcommittee openly debated how a bill meant to license commercial sportsbooks should treat a federal exchange already taking the same kind of action from residents. Gov. Henry McMaster didn’t wait for the bill: his spokesperson, Brandon Charochak, said publicly that people facilitating prediction markets in South Carolina “can be arrested and subject to criminal action.” No arrest has followed. No state lawsuit has followed either — the governor’s office made a warning, not a filing.

The lawsuit actually in court didn’t come from the state. South Carolina Gambling Recovery LLC, backed by Tampa-based Veridis Management, sued Kalshi and Robinhood in Oconee County Court of Common Pleas in June 2025 — not the attorney general, a private plaintiff using civil-recovery law.

The 1710 Law Behind the South Carolina Suit

That private suit leans on the Statute of Anne, a British gambling law from 1710 that lets someone who lost money on an illegal wager sue to recover it — and if that person sits on the claim for three months, lets essentially anyone else sue the winning side instead, for multiplied damages. South Carolina Gambling Recovery LLC paired that centuries-old mechanism with the state’s own modern recovery statute, S.C. Code Ann. § 32-1-10, which lets a South Carolina resident who lost more than $50 gambling go after the winner in civil court. Kalshi and Robinhood removed both cases to the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina in October 2025 (Nos. 8:25-cv-12859 and 8:25-cv-12867), where they sit unresolved as of this writing — one entry in a run of nearly identical Gambling Recovery LLC suits filed against Kalshi in multiple states, not a South Carolina-specific enforcement action.

A second, separate suit followed in July 2026: a Charleston County resident sued DraftKings and Polymarket, not Kalshi, on the same illegal-gambling theory. That spreads the private-litigation strategy across more platforms rather than resolving anything about Kalshi specifically — South Carolina still has no court ruling, state lawsuit, or injunction that actually reaches Kalshi’s contracts.

Is Kalshi Legit in South Carolina?

As a company, yes — CFTC designation since 2020, KYC-verified accounts, dollar settlement, the same starting point as every other state page in this series. A private lawsuit built on an 18th-century recovery statute isn’t evidence Kalshi doesn’t pay out; it’s an untested argument that a very old law reaches a very new kind of exchange, and no judge has ruled on that argument yet.

Is Kalshi Safe to Use in South Carolina Right Now?

You can open an account and trade from South Carolina today — no court order or state action currently stops it. Safe here still means CFTC oversight and KYC verification, not investment-safe, and not a guarantee that survives however the Gambling Recovery LLC case or a future state action turns out. A contract can expire worthless regardless of what any court eventually decides. This isn’t a way to make money, in South Carolina or anywhere else on this site. 21+ only, and if it stops feeling like a choice, 1-800-GAMBLER is free and confidential.

Kalshi South Carolina — Frequently Asked Questions

Is Kalshi legal in South Carolina?

Untested rather than cleared. No South Carolina court has ruled on it, no state agency has sued Kalshi, and no injunction blocks it — Kalshi operates today under its federal CFTC designation. But the state's gambling law is unusually broad, Gov. McMaster's office has called facilitating prediction markets arrestable, and a private plaintiff is suing Kalshi in federal court over the same conduct. "Nothing has stopped it" and "it's legal" are not the same sentence here.

What is the 1710 law being used to sue Kalshi in South Carolina?

The Statute of Anne, a British law from 1710 that predates the United States. It lets someone who lost money on an illegal wager sue to get it back, and if that person doesn't sue within three months, it lets essentially anyone else sue the winning side for multiplied damages instead. South Carolina Gambling Recovery LLC used it, paired with the state's own S.C. Code Ann. § 32-1-10, to sue Kalshi and Robinhood in Oconee County in June 2025. Both cases were removed to federal court in October 2025 and remain pending.

Has South Carolina's Attorney General sued Kalshi?

No, not as of this writing. The legal pressure on Kalshi in South Carolina has come from a private plaintiff — South Carolina Gambling Recovery LLC — not from the state Attorney General's office. Gov. Henry McMaster's office has publicly said prediction-market facilitators could face arrest, but that is a statement from the governor's spokesperson, not a filed criminal charge or a state civil suit.

Is Kalshi legit in South Carolina?

As a company, yes — CFTC designation since 2020, KYC-verified accounts, dollar settlement, the same baseline as every state page in this series. A private lawsuit built on a 1710 recovery statute isn't a fraud finding against Kalshi; it's a novel legal argument over whether an old civil-recovery law reaches a federally designated exchange, and no court has decided that yet.

Is Kalshi safe to use in South Carolina right now?

You can open an account and trade from South Carolina today — no court order or state action currently stops it. Safe here still means CFTC oversight and KYC verification, not investment-safe, and not immune to what happens if a federal court eventually sides with the Gambling Recovery LLC theory or the state decides the governor's warning needs a lawsuit behind it.

Will South Carolina ever legalize sports betting, and would that cover Kalshi?

Maybe eventually, but slowly. South Carolina's constitution bans gambling expansion outright, so legalizing sportsbooks needs a voter-approved amendment, not just a statute — a higher bar than most states face. S.444 got its first-ever committee hearing in February 2026 and stalled without a vote. Even if it eventually passes, a licensed sportsbook framework wouldn't automatically cover Kalshi, since Kalshi operates as a federal exchange rather than a state-licensed book.

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