Plus500 Says Its Ohio Sports-Contract Block Was Already in Place

Plus500US told Ohio’s gambling regulator that it had already been blocking sports-event contracts for people located in the state, and had checked those restrictions again after receiving the regulator’s cease-and-desist letter. Its response, dated 13 October 2026 and supplied to Vultax by the Ohio Casino Control Commission on 22 October, describes a geolocation control rather than announcing a newly withdrawn product.

That distinction is the useful detail in the original one-page letter. Plus500US Financial Services, LLC says it does not solicit, accept or facilitate sports-event orders from people located in Ohio. It says its controls have, at all relevant times, blocked those people from accessing or placing such orders through its platform. Those are the company’s statements; Vultax has not independently tested the controls.

The Commission’s assistant general counsel, Jared D. Arnold, supplied the letter in response to Vultax’s public-records request for the operators’ replies. “One company has confirmed compliance”, the Commission wrote. It also said two companies were pursuing litigation and that discussions with companies under investigation continued. The reply does not identify the two litigants.

The letter has two parts that belong together. Plus500US confirms that it reviewed and reverified its Ohio restrictions. It also says the response is voluntary and is not an admission that it violated Ohio law, that it falls within the Commission’s jurisdiction, or that the Commission correctly characterized any product. It reserves its rights, defenses and objections, including those under federal law.

The company describes itself in the letter as a futures commission merchant registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a member of the National Futures Association. That description does not answer the state-law dispute: the same letter confirms the Ohio control while preserving objections to the Commission’s authority.

Chief legal officer Amy Meyer closes by asking the Commission to confirm that it considers the matter resolved. An operator’s request for that confirmation is different from the regulator issuing it. The material supplied to Vultax contains no closure decision.

The Commission confirmed that it sent ten cease-and-desist letters on 2 October to companies that appeared to be offering prediction markets on sporting events to people in Ohio. It said a number of companies had engaged in dialogue, two were actively pursuing litigation, and it could not comment further on ongoing investigations.

That answer supports a dated entry for the supplied Plus500 response. It does not support assigning a final compliance or noncompliance finding to every other recipient, identifying the two litigants, or treating discussions as a settlement. The public reply and attachment leave those questions open.

The compliance confirmation had already been reported by Sports Betting Dime on 22 October. Vultax’s document review focuses on what the supplied letter says about pre-existing controls, reserved legal objections and the request for closure. The original document is available below so readers can check that reading.

A regulator’s action, an operator’s policy and a measured control answer different questions. Latvia, for example, has a website block for Polymarket without a payment block on its operator. Czechia’s latest reply distinguishes listed websites from listed payment accounts. The Ohio letter adds another example: a broker describes an existing product-and-location control while reserving its legal position.

Vultax’s interactive Europe record lets readers inspect authority actions, published replies and network observations separately. Its European entries do not determine U.S. law; the shared method is to keep the document, the claim and any technical observation identifiable.

Download Plus500US’s original response, dated 13 October 2026 (PDF, one page). The Commission supplied this scan as an attachment to its 22 October reply; Vultax has preserved the file unchanged.

The PDF is a scan. An accessible text transcription of Plus500US’s substantive letter is available beside it, with letterhead, direct contact details and the handwritten signature omitted. It is a Vultax transcription; the PDF remains the original source.

Read the substantive Commission reply, received 22 October 2026 (text). The transcript omits the salutation, contact details and quoted email chain. The request asked for written replies to the 2 October letters and subsequent Commission letters. This account is limited to what was supplied, with no later closure decision or live geolocation test.