Kalshi bans George Santos for betting on State of the Union

Prediction market platform Kalshi has permanently barred former U.S. Congressman George Santos from its site and penalized him more than $71,000, according to an announcement made on Monday. The ban is a result of Santos placing bets on his own presence at President Donald Trump's State of the Union address. Santos had been removed from the House of Representatives in 2023.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently imposed a fine on him for potential market manipulation connected to this incident. Both Kalshi and the CFTC reported that Santos disseminated false information on social media that supported his bets and subsequently failed to attend the address. He profited around $18,000 from these wagers.

Furthermore, the company stated that it would impose sanctions and temporary holds on three current and former political candidates in Maine, California, and North Carolina who were accused of betting on their respective campaigns. Previously, U.S. regulators had imposed a fine on Gabriel Perez, a former White House teleprompter operator, for supposedly wagering on Trump's speech content. This report was produced with AI assistance and later reviewed by a human editor.