Kalshi has permanently banned former US lawmaker George Santos from its prediction market platform and fined him $71,356, while US House candidate Laurie Buckhout was suspended for three years and ordered to pay a $2,590 penalty.
In separate settlement notices released Friday, Kalshi’s compliance department said both cases followed investigations into the use of insider information in trading event contracts. The company described the Santos case as one of the first lifetime bans it has issued since launching in 2021.
Contracts tied to events the traders could influence
Kalshi said the restrictions were linked to trades in event contracts whose outcomes could be affected by the traders’ own actions.
Buckhout, who is running in North Carolina’s 1st congressional district, “announced her candidacy for public office and was added as a market option for a contract on a North Carolina Congressional election,” according to the platform. Santos, Kalshi said, “engaged in trading activity in certain markets related to his attendance at the State of the Union address” in February 2026.
Kalshi’s rules state: “If a Trader is a decision maker, either directly or indirectly, or has any influence, directly or indirectly, no matter the scale and importance of the influence, on the outcome of the Underlying event of any Contract, that Trader is prohibited from attempting to enter into any trade, either directly or indirectly, on the market in such Contracts.”
Different treatment in the two cases
Kalshi said Buckhout “cooperated with the inquiry” and agreed to the three-year trading ban and penalty. In Santos’ case, the platform made no comparable statement indicating that he cooperated with the investigation.
Buckhout remains the Republican candidate for North Carolina’s 1st congressional district in the 2026 midterm elections. Santos, who previously represented New York’s 3rd congressional district, was expelled from Congress in December 2023 amid fraud allegations.
Responding to the settlement, Santos said in a Monday post on X that Kalshi was an “unserious company.” Buckhout reportedly described betting on her own congressional race as a “dumb mistake.”
As of Tuesday, Kalshi was still listing event contracts tied to the outcome of Buckhout’s North Carolina race, with Democratic incumbent Don Davis at 63% and Buckhout at 41%.
Prediction markets face heavier scrutiny
The action comes as prediction market platforms face pressure from state and federal lawmakers over claims that many event contracts are vulnerable to manipulation. In a separate case, Gabriel Perez, President Donald Trump’s teleprompter operator, was fined $172,000 by federal regulators after trading Kalshi event contracts tied to Trump’s speeches.
Kalshi and other prediction market platforms, including Polymarket, are also facing lawsuits from several US state gaming authorities, which allege the companies are facilitating illegal bets on sporting events.
CFTC and states remain in a jurisdiction fight
At the same time, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair and sole commissioner Michael Selig has said the agency has “exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets and has vowed legal action against any state authority that challenges that position.
Last month, in a rare move, the CFTC invoked emergency authority to oppose an effort by New York state to block Kalshi from offering contracts tied to sports, elections and other events.