Kalshi Slaps First-Ever Lifetime Ban On Ex-Congressman George Santos For Betting On Himself

Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) became the first person to ever be banned for life from prediction market Kalshi after placing lucrative bets on himself.

CNN’s Marshall Cohen reported Monday, “This just happened in the last hour. The first ever lifetime ban for anyone on the Kalshi platform.”

Cohen continued:

And it’s because he was caught earlier this year, according to Kalshi, manipulating their market on whether or not he would attend the State of the Union. He was posting on Twitter saying he’s going to be there, then placing bets behind the scenes. He didn’t ultimately show. They said that he made a lot of money, it violates the rules. There was a referral to the federal regulators. He denies wrongdoing, but they have levied a lifetime ban. No more Kalshi for George Santos!

Santos hit back on X, writing, “Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform. Let’s see how much longer you guys are around for.”

In a second tweet, Santos wrote, “By the way @Kalshi is such an unserious company it violates its own notices and deadlines lol. On August 7th they gave us a 30 day notice and today they leaked/ announced once again their frivolous nonsense. Leaking and attention seeking seem to be the M/O of this organization. Pathetic!”

The entire situation arose after a federal regulator alleged that Santos made more than $17,000 by placing bets on whether he would attend the State of the Union address, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In addition to the lifetime ban, Kalshi is charging Santos a penalty of $71,356, the report said.

Santos was expelled from the House of Representatives in 2023 over ethics concerns, including blatantly lying about his resume and personal history. Santos was later sentenced to seven years in prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, but served just 84 days before his sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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