Kalshi fined and suspended three congressional candidates after the prediction market company said they placed wagers on election outcomes tied to their own races, continuing a broader push to restrict trading by political candidates. The disciplinary actions, announced Wednesday, were part of Kalshi’s latest enforcement of rules it says prohibit candidates from trading on their own campaigns.
Kalshi’s disciplinary documents named Mark Moran, an independent candidate for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat, as well as Ezekiel Enriquez, who ran in a Texas Republican primary for a U.S. House seat, and Matt Klein, a Democratic state senator running for a U.S. House seat in Minnesota. The company said it fined and suspended the three men for five years, marking another high-profile instance of alleged insider trading on prediction markets.
Kalshi said Klein and Enriquez placed bets of less than $100 related to their “own candidacy,” according to the prediction market company. In Moran’s case, the amount was tied to his own account of the activity on social media, where he said he “traded $100 on myself,” according to the Associated Press report.
Kalshi said Moran was fined the most at more than $6,200 and was suspended for five years after refusing to reach an agreement with the company. The company said Klein and Enriquez, who did reach agreements, faced penalties of over $530 and $780, respectively, and were also suspended for five years. The Associated Press report said the agreements were with Kalshi and were separate from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets.
Moran defended his decision to place a bet on himself, telling The Associated Press that he intended to draw attention to what he said was unjust sway that platforms like Kalshi can have on elections. He also said he met with the company and asked for his name to appear on its website, and he said he was fined more than the other candidates because he refused to sign a settlement that would have required him to post a statement on X.
In an interview described in the Associated Press report, Moran said, “When I piss people off, when I upset them, and when I captivate their attention, that’s when they have to start listening.” Klein confirmed Kalshi’s findings in a post on social media, according to the report, saying his $50 wager in October was the first time he had used a predictions market and that he was “curious about how it worked.”
Klein told the public he considered the wager a mistake and apologized, writing that the experience made it clear that the markets need more regulation. The Associated Press report added that Klein is a cosponsor of a bill in the Minnesota Legislature that would ban most wagering on prediction markets, including wagers on the outcome of elections, and that in an interview he said he did not view his $50 bet as inconsistent with his legislative sponsorship.
Enriquez’s situation differed in the reporting described by the Associated Press, which said he lost his House race in early March with less than 2% of the vote. Contact information for Enriquez was not immediately found for comment, according to the report, and his name was included in Kalshi’s disciplinary documentation along with Moran and Klein.
The disciplinary actions arrived amid heightened attention to prediction markets, including earlier cases and congressional scrutiny of how the platforms are used. Kalshi’s enforcement also followed March disclosures by prediction market companies of new rules that included restrictions on political candidates trading on their own campaigns, as described by the Associated Press report.
U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, a California Democrat, criticized the punishments publicly, saying in a post that “That’s not a punishment. That’s a parking ticket.” The episode underscored the ongoing policy debate about whether election-related prediction markets should be regulated more tightly, particularly when candidates hold positions they could benefit from.