Kalshi Fines Three U.S. Congressional Candidates for Betting on Their Own Campaigns

On April 23, the prediction market platform Kalshi recently fined three U.S. congressional candidates and suspended their access for five years due to violations related to betting on the outcomes of their own campaigns. The candidates involved are Mark Moran, a Senate candidate from Virginia; Matt Klein, a House candidate from Minnesota; and Ezekiel Enriquez, a House candidate from Texas. As a result of this incident, Mark Moran was fined $6,229 and required to return related trading profits; Matt Klein was fined $540; and Ezekiel Enriquez was fined $784. All three are banned from using the Kalshi platform for five years. Following the incident, Moran stated that he intentionally violated the rules to expose potential corruption on the platform; Klein expressed that he was merely experimenting out of curiosity and has complied with the penalties. Kalshi stated that any candidate whose trades can influence market outcomes is considered in violation, regardless of the scale of the trades. Recently, both Kalshi and its competitor Polymarket have strengthened their controls against insider trading.