George Santos finally accomplished something no one else has – he earned the first ever lifetime ban from prediction market gambling site, Kalshi! Congrats! This is after they conducted a compliance investigation to see if he had manipulated the site by conducting insider trading. They determined that he had – and imposed a penalty of over $71,000 and banned him from the platform – for life.
The chargs stem from allegations that he had manipulated the site after placing bets about whether he would attend Donald Trump;s State of the Union address in February of this year. Because he controlled the outcome, he could easily manipulate the bets and decide whether to go or not based on what would garner him the biggest payout – and that is exactly what he did.
Kalshi put out a statement addressing the decision, saying: “The Kalshi compliance department has established reasonable cause to believe that George Santos engaged in trading activity in certain markets related to his attendance at the State of the Union address.”
George Santos put out the exact type of statement you would expect: “Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform. Let’s see how much longer you guys are around for.”
Three other candidates running for office were given three-year suspensions from the platform after placing bets on their own races. They include:
Laurie Buckhout, a Republican running for Congress in North Carolina. She bet under $1,000 on her own election. She previously served as acting assistant secretary of defense. She was fined $2,500.
Ben Midgley, who ran (and lost) the Republican primary for Maine governor. He was fined $5,400. He didn’t win any money.
Stephen Cloobeck, a libertarian who dropped out of the California governor race, was fined $32,000.
I predict that prediction markets will continue to be a disaster. How much do I win?
