George Santos Receives Kalshi’s First Lifetime Ban After Betting on Himself

George Santos has been permanently barred from Kalshi in what the prediction-market platform described as its first-ever lifetime ban, according to reporting summarized by Boing Boing. The ban followed trades Santos made on a market concerning whether he would attend Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. Kalshi’s enforcement team reportedly froze his account and referred the matter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that oversees prediction markets, after alleging that Santos tried to influence the market by making false statements about his plans. Santos settled the matter with the CFTC during the summer for $35,000. According to the report, roughly half of that amount represented the profit from the trades, while the remaining $17,500 was a civil penalty. His lawyer said Santos agreed to the settlement to resolve the matter but did so without admitting the commission’s allegations, findings or conclusions. Santos declined to comment through his legal representative when contacted by WIRED, according to the source material. He did, however, respond on social media, sarcastically thanking Kalshi for the lifetime ban and questioning how long the platform would continue operating. His remarks referred to Kalshi’s ongoing disputes with state authorities over the regulation of prediction markets. The ban marks a sharp change from Santos’s earlier relationship with the sector. He had previously been paid to promote Kalshi rival Polymarket, but Polymarket ended that relationship after federal regulators began examining his conduct connected to the State of the Union market. The CFTC settlement resolves the agency’s case financially, but Santos’s lawyer’s statement makes clear that the settlement was not an admission of the allegations. Kalshi’s lifetime ban remains the platform’s stated response to the flagged activity.