Kalshi penalizes three US congressional candidates for wagering on own campaigns

Prediction markets platform Kalshi has fined and suspended three congressional candidates for wagering on the outcomes of their own campaigns, as the company steps up enforcement of insider trading controls.

Kalshi's regulatory documents showed that the candidates involved were Mark Moran, Matt Klein, and Ezekiel Enriquez.

Moran, who is running for a Senate seat in Virginia, received a $6,229 penalty and was requested to return profits from trades in two markets related to his campaign. He was also banned from accessing Kalshi for five years.

Klein, a Democratic senator running for a House seat in Minnesota, was fined $540 and suspended from the platform for five years. Enriquez, who ran for a House seat in a Texas Republican primary, also received a $784 fine and was barred from Kalshi for five years.

In response to the enforcement, Moran wrote on Wednesday on X that he traded on Kalshi because he "wanted to get caught."

"YES, I did bet ~$100 on myself on Kalshi because I wanted to get caught… After discovering potential manipulation on Polymarket in the NYC mayoral race (NY Post reported on this) I realized how rife with corruption Kalshi is," said Moran.

In a statement posted on X, Klein said he wagered on a prediction market out of curiosity but was later informed that his action violated platform rules.

"In compliance with their request, I paid a penalty and agreed to be suspended from the platform. That was the only wager I have ever made on a predictions market," Klein added.

Kalshi documents indicated that Klein and Enriquez each purchased less than $100 in contracts related to their races. Enriquez's contact information was not immediately available to seek comment.

Insider trading controls

Kalshi and rival Polymarket strengthened insider trading safeguards after U.S. lawmakers pushed for tighter restrictions on the sector.

Last month, U.S. senators Adam Schiff and John Curtis introduced the "Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act," seeking to bar prediction contracts tied to sports or casino-style games from being listed or traded on a registered platform. 

Kalshi has since rolled out new screening tools, while Polymarket has expanded restrictions on market abuse.

"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," Bobby DeNault, enforcement and legal counsel of Kalshi, wrote in a Wednesday statement. "No matter how small the size of the trade, any trade that is found to have violated our exchange rules will be punished."

Kalshi and Polymarket remain the dominant prediction market platforms, with Kalshi recording about $13 billion in monthly volume in March, compared with Polymarket's $10.57 billion, according to The Block's data dashboard.

Expand Chart