Kalshi, the popular prediction market website, suspended three political candidates from its platform for trying to place bets on their own races, the company’s legal counsel said Wednesday.
Mark Moran, an independent running for Senate in Virginia, Ezekiel Enriquez, a Republican who lost a congressional race in Texas, and Matt Klein, a Democrat serving in Minnesota’s state legislature who is also running for Congress, are each banned for five years and face financial penalties ranging from $539 to $6,229.
It marks some of the most aggressive enforcement action a prediction site has taken against a political candidate thus far, CNN reported first
“Just like in traditional financial markets, bad actors will try to cheat,” Bobby DeNault, Kalshi’s enforcement and legal counsel, said in a statement. “Regulated exchanges must constantly evolve and adapt their systems to address insider threats.”
The announcement comes as Congress tries to pass legislation regulating government officials’ use of prediction market platforms.
Prediction sites, such as Kalshi or Polymarket, allow users to bet on nearly everything from sports to entertainment events to war and elections – which became a major data point leading into the 2024 presidential election.
But they have also faced steep criticism from lawmakers, state attorneys general and anti-gambling advocates who say their setup as “event contracts” and lack of protections promote insider trading and gambling.
The platforms are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
”Cases like these demonstrate Kalshi’s commitment to policing all types of unfair or improper trading on our platforms,” DeNault said. “Regardless of the size of a trade, political candidates who can influence a market based on whether they stay in or out of a race violate our rules. No matter how small the size of the trade, any trade that is found to have violated our exchange rules will be punished.”
Klein acknowledged his one-time wager “mistake” and apologized in a statement posted on X. He said he placed the $50 bet using his own money in October 2025 after hearing about prediction markets.
“I was curious about how it worked,” Klein said. “This was a mistake, and I apologize.”
“My experience, like many other Minnesotans, points to the need for clearer rules and regulations for these types of markets,” he added. Klein agreed to pay Kalshi $539.85.
Moran defended himself in a four-minute video posted on X, claiming he purposefully bet on his race to draw attention to “how elections can be bought, and our democracy is up for sale.” He said Kalshi was responsible for that.
Kalshi said Moran traded twice on a market that predicted who would run for office – once before he announced his candidacy and again after he publicly announced his campaign.
The Virginia Senate candidate defended himself against insider trading allegations, saying he had already announced his intent to run for office before asking Kalshi’s head of politics to create a market for his race.
Moran was fined $6,229.30 because Kalshi said he refused to comply with requests to settle the matter. Moran said he had initially agreed to pay Kalshi a less severe fine and comply with a ban, but refused to release a public statement
He called the situation an “orchestrated hit.”
Enriquez, who agreed to pay Kalshi $784.20, attempted to place a wager on his own election but Kalshi said it pre-emptively blocked the trader after triggering the platform’s internal system.
Kalshi said he was “fully cooperative” and agreed to settle.
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