Wire reporting: (AP, via ClickOnDetroit)

Utah Attorney General Derek Brown filed criminal charges Wednesday against prediction-market operator KalshiEx LLC and co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, accusing them of promoting online gambling in a state that bans it^2,4,12.

The charging papers list a second-degree felony pattern of unlawful activity, 12 third-degree felony counts of online gambling promotion and a class A misdemeanor of general gambling promotion^4,12,16.

A probable-cause affidavit says investigator Scott Eggerman opened an account with Utah location data and placed wagers on sports events, including football and hockey, after a federal judge had already said Utah could apply its gambling laws to Kalshi^4,12,16.

Brown said in a statement, "Gambling is illegal in Utah, whether you place the bet, run the game, or promote it"^4,12.

Kalshi spokesperson Jacki McGavick said, "This is a crazy overreach; Utah is clearly playing politics," and that the company would fight the case as it did in Arizona^2,4.

The criminal case follows Utah's civil suit seeking to stop Kalshi from offering sports, election and other event contracts in the state^1,16.

U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby ruled in August that the Commodity Exchange Act does not stop Utah from enforcing anti-gambling laws; the 10th Circuit later denied Kalshi an emergency injunction pending appeal^1,12.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission then sued Utah, arguing Congress gave the agency exclusive jurisdiction over designated contract markets and that event contracts are swaps, not gambling^1,4,16.

CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said Utah is trying to shut down prediction markets that the commission oversees, and the agency has also sued several other states over similar enforcement^1,16.

Al Jazeera noted the charges came a day after that federal lawsuit¹¹. Circuit courts are split, and New Jersey has asked the Supreme Court to decide whether states may treat sports event contracts as gambling^1,2.

Arizona earlier brought criminal charges against Kalshi that a federal judge blocked; Arizona has sought to revive that case^2,4. FOX 2 St. Louis reported a separate Kalshi lawsuit against Missouri's attorney general over sports contracts⁸.

Mansour and Lopes Lara were issued summonses¹². Whether the Utah criminal case proceeds, and how it interacts with the CFTC's suit in the same district that previously sided with the state, remains unresolved^1,16.