On Monday, Kalshi announced it had permanently banned former US Congressman George Santos for prohibited trading activity linked to Santos’ 2026 State of the Union “appearance” market. According to Kalshi head of enforcement Robert J. DeNault, Santos was one of five individuals who were penalized as part of a platform-wide regulatory sweep that has been posted to the exchange’s official website.
“All but one individual (George Santos) cooperated with our Compliance Department inquiries and will be banned temporarily,” stated DeNault on Monday morning. “Mr. Santos faces additional financial penalties, and will be banned permanently from trading on Kalshi.”
Santos, a former Polymarket paid personality, is accused of turning a profit of $17,839.57 on his own SOTU “appearance” or “attendance” market during February 2026. Despite announcing that he would attend the address, Kalshi claims that the public figure engaged in prohibited trading activity, picking up “no” contracts and manipulating the market in the process. Santos’ now infamous “FML” post on X resulted in an ironic twist that prompted Kalshi to reimburse traders who were negatively impacted on that specific market.
On Monday morning, Santos defiantly responded to the latest Kalshi enforcement action against him. “Hey Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform. Let’s see how much longer you guys are around for,” stated the reality TV star who is set to take part in season 5 of Fox’s “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” show starting September 24th.
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test Season 5 Promo (FOX)
Santos added in a separate post, “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!”
Although the trailer for season 5 leads viewers to believe that Santos won’t be a legitimate contender to outperform other cast members on the show, TV Insider reports that appearance fees can range from $100,000 to $500,000 per participant before any prizes are awarded. The unique format of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” makes it difficult to package into a prediction “winner” market since multiple contestants can technically “survive.”
In a lower-profile notice, Kalshi fined Laurie Buckhout, a retired US Army colonel and a Republican congressional candidate for North Carolina, for placing less than $1,000 in prediction market trades related to her own candidacy.
Due to her cooperation with the investigation, Buckhout received a $2,589.96 fine and a three-year ban from accessing the platform. The settlement is part of a growing trend between alleged offenders and Kalshi’s regulatory enforcement arm, in which individuals who fully cooperate and divulge their prohibited prediction market trading activity receive temporary bans and fines that are far less than the penalties assessed to accused persons who refuse to cooperate with in-house and CFTC investigations.
Loading …
