Kalshi stops three congress candidates by betting on their election

Prediction market platform Kalshi said today it has suspended and fined three congressmen from Minnesota, Texas and Virginia for “political insider trading” related to betting on their campaigns.

The three men are Mark Moran, a former member of the Virginia Democratic primary in the Senate, who is running for the US Senate in Virginia, Matt Klein, a Democratic state official running for the US House position in Minnesota, and Ezekiel Enriquez from Texas, who is running for the Republican primary in the 21st Congressional District.

Klein and Enriquez reportedly settled and paid minimum fines of $530 and $780, respectively, while Moran refused to pay and was fined a whopping $6,200. All men receive a five-year suspension from the prediction market.

In March, Kalshi announced that he had introduced a new set of “surveillance” to prevent politicians or athletes from insider trading. Robert DeNault, Kalshi’s head of law and legal counsel, wrote in X today that three politicians have been “flagged” by the new vigilance.

“Kalshi does not tolerate anyone cheating or breaking the rules,” he continued. “Regulated exchanges must always be flexible and adapt their systems to deal with insider threats. These three cases are an example of how the development of effective engineering solutions can help identify illegal trading activity, and how people who cooperate and participate can reduce penalties.”

However, the stakes were not high. Kalshi said Moran traded in two markets “related to his campaign.” He wrote on social media that he “traded himself for $100.” He added that the purpose of his commercial was to highlight how the US is being “destroyed by evil,” and how companies like Kalshi are “destroying young men.”

“For $100, I just got more attention from CNN, Fox, WSJ, etc than any other media outlet,” he wrote on X. “In politics, money has always bought attention, but I can get attention almost for free.”

Both Klein and Enriquez had placed bets under $100 related to their “personal election.” Klein explained that his $50 bet in October was his first attempt at predicting the market, and that he was “curious about how it worked” and “didn’t know the rules.”

The story comes after new bills were introduced last month to prevent politicians from betting on the prediction market. Kalshi, along with Polymarket, subsequently announced that they would introduce policies to reduce insider trading.

States are also trying, with governor JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, and governor Kathy Hochul of New York, also a Democrat, both recently issuing orders to prevent state employees from trading in the futures markets.

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