Connecticut Orders Polymarket, 8 Prediction Markets Out

Connecticut has ordered nine prediction market companies to stop offering "sports event contracts" to Connecticut residents immediately: Polymarket, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Robinhood, ProphetX, Novig, Webull, Gemini and Underdog Predict. The Department of Consumer Protection issued the cease-and-desist orders and announced them on September 10, 2026, alongside subpoenas to nine state licensees, fifteen media organizations and five app stores and payment services. The state also says it ordered platforms to let Connecticut residents withdraw funds currently held, but it writes that instruction as covering "all three platforms" in the same paragraph that orders "all nine" to stop, so the announcement does not settle whether your platform is one of them. One of the nine, Novig, was running a sweepstakes model until August 4.

The announcement came from Governor Ned Lamont and Consumer Protection Commissioner Bryan T. Cafferelli. We read the state's own press release rather than any write-up of it, which is how we check everything we publish.

Which companies received a Connecticut cease-and-desist?

Nine, named in the release. Kalshi is not among them, because Connecticut sued Kalshi separately. The release dates that suit to "earlier this month," which is wrong by a fortnight: the attorney general's office announced it on August 26, 2026, and stamps its own press release with that date.

All nine are ordered to "immediately cease and desist advertising, offering, promoting, or otherwise making available 'sports event contracts' or any other form of unlicensed online gambling to Connecticut residents."

Can I withdraw money I am holding on one of these apps?

The state says it ordered platforms to let Connecticut residents withdraw funds currently held, and then does not say how many platforms that covers. The wording is worth reading exactly as published, because it does not match the count.

Both numbers sit in one paragraph. The sentence quoted above orders "all nine platforms" to stop. The very next sentence reads: "DCP also ordered all three platforms to allow Connecticut residents to withdraw any funds currently held by the platforms." Nine in the first, three in the second, with no three-platform group defined anywhere on the page. We are quoting the state's own text rather than resolving the discrepancy, because the orders themselves are not published alongside the release and we have not read them. If you hold a balance, that ambiguity is a reason to start a withdrawal now rather than assume your platform is covered.

You can also ask for the paperwork. The release ends by saying "Copies of the cease-and-desist letters and subpoenas are available upon request to DCP," through the department's GovQA records portal. That is the route to the actual wording of the withdrawal instruction, and it is the thing worth requesting if your money is sitting on one of the nine.

Failure to comply, the release says, "may result in additional action including, but not limited to, civil penalties under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act and/or criminal penalties for violations of Connecticut's gaming statutes."

Why did Connecticut subpoena news outlets and app stores?

Because the department is building an investigation, and it went to the businesses that carry the advertising and take the payments rather than only to the operators.

The release headlines "Nearly 30 Subpoenas" and then lists recipients in three groups.

Its own count sentence covers only the first two of those groups, saying subpoenas went "to a total of 9 licensees and 15 media organizations," which is twenty-four. Adding the five app store and payment recipients it lists immediately afterwards gets to twenty-nine. That arithmetic is ours, not the state's.

The release is careful about what that means: "Businesses that received subpoenas are not under investigation by the department but may possess information pertinent to the state's investigation into illegal prediction market operations in Connecticut." A subpoena here is a request for records, not an accusation.

The reasons the state gives for acting are consumer-protection ones rather than tax or licensing ones. Prediction markets, the release says, "are known to offer and accept wagers from prohibited bettors, including people under the legal betting age of 21 and who appear on the state's voluntary self-exclusion list," and they take wagers on Connecticut college sports, which state law bars.

Does this affect sweepstakes casinos in Connecticut?

Not directly, and the Connecticut market it would touch is already closed. Sweepstakes casinos have been illegal in Connecticut since Public Act 25-112 took effect on October 1, 2025, which is the ban our Connecticut legality page sets out.

That does not mean every brand honours it cleanly. Two days before this announcement we reported that Zula Casino and Sportzino let Connecticut residents register and play while their own Sweepstakes Rules bar Connecticut from redeeming Sweeps Coins at all, and that our own brand data is missing Connecticut for both. The correction is queued with the owner. Until it lands, treat a Connecticut sign-up at either brand as a balance you have no documented way to cash out, and read what our testing found on each in the Zula Casino review and the Sportzino review.

Which sweepstakes brands sit closest to prediction markets?

Novig, most of all, because it used to be one of them. It retired both of its coin currencies on August 4 and now runs a real-money exchange, leaving the sweepstakes model for the prediction-market one. Five weeks later Connecticut ordered it to stop offering sports event contracts in the state. The pivot did not buy it a regulatory pass. Novig has also sued Massachusetts, Washington and New Mexico, asking federal courts to declare that state gambling laws are preempted by federal commodities law as applied to its event contracts, which is the argument judges have now turned down twice in a month.

The traffic is also moving the other way. WOW Vegas documented WOW Picks, a sports-prediction game taking both Sweeps Coins and WOW Coins, on September 9, a day before this announcement. What that means for Connecticut is not something we can state, and neither can the operator: WOW Vegas lists Connecticut among the states restricted from Sweeps Coins play in its help centre, which we re-read today and which still carries a July 14, 2026 stamp, but the same operator has published no list anywhere of the states where picks are allowed, and its own help article says casino eligibility "does not automatically mean you are eligible for WOW Picks." The Sweeps Coins restriction says nothing about the WOW Coins side of the product.

The two sweepstakes sportsbooks closest to this line of law are Legendz and Sportzino, and neither had filed for a federal exchange or broker registration when we checked on August 15. Where your own state stands on the sweepstakes question is on our state-by-state legality matrix, and our guide to where sweepstakes casinos are legal explains how the categories differ. If your state is open, the brands we have tested and ranked is the list to work from.

Sources & documents

• Governor Lamont Announces New Actions Against Illegal Prediction Markets Offering Sports Wagers in Connecticut, Office of the Governor, September 10, 2026
• Connecticut Sues Kalshi to Stop Illegal, Unlicensed Sports Betting, Office of the Attorney General, August 26, 2026
• Which states and territories are excluded, WOW Vegas help centre

We read the governor's press release in full on September 11, 2026, and every quotation above is verbatim from it. The cease-and-desist orders and the subpoenas are not published alongside it, so the terms of the orders, including the withdrawal instruction and the "all three platforms" wording, are reported on that single state document and we have not seen the orders themselves. DCP says it will supply copies on request. None of the nine companies had responded publicly at the time of writing and we did not contact them.

Two things in the release do not hold up against the state's own records. It dates the Kalshi suit to "earlier this month"; the attorney general's press release announcing that suit is stamped August 26, 2026, and we read it. And its headline claims "Nearly 30 Subpoenas" while its only count sentence says "a total of 9 licensees and 15 media organizations," which is twenty-four. The five app store and payment recipients it lists separately bring the total to twenty-nine; the state does not add them up anywhere, so that sum is ours.

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