Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) became the first person ever to receive a lifetime ban from the online prediction market Kalshi.
Santos, who was expelled from Congress in 2023, illegally made a series of large bets in February 2026 over whether or not he would attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. The former congressman made $17,839.57 on those bets, Kalshi reported.
“The Kalshi Compliance Department has established reasonable cause to believe that George Santos engaged in trading activity in certain markets related to his attendance at the State of the Union Address,” the platform said in its report.
“He then began making a series of public statements regarding his attendance at the event in an attempt to influence the price of Yes and No contracts, respectively,” the report continued. “Some of these included false or misleading statements. … The Compliance Department found that Santos made these statements with the intent to manipulate the price of the Yes or No contracts that he intended to purchase.”
For example, after betting that he would attend, Santos posted a question to his X followers on February 22, asking whether he should “wear a muted serious suit to the SOTU or a bedazzled one?”
The likelihood that he would attend the event spiked after that, and Santos reportedly cashed out the same day with $3,400 in profits.
Days before President Donald Trump’s SOTU address, Santos wrote on X, “I’m going to be there for the State of the Union in the gallery, guys.” The day before the event, however, he bet thousands that he would not attend — and on the day of Trump’s address, Santos told his followers that he had to watch the SOTU at an airport due to bad weather.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) claimed that Santos had misrepresented himself online in ways that could have influenced the situation upon which he was placing the bets — and said that he should not be allowed to bet on any event in which he had the power to change the outcome.
In addition to the ban, Santos was also slapped with a $71,356 fine after Kalshi stated that he hadn’t cooperated with the internal investigation.
The New York Post reported that Santos agreed in July to pay a $35,000 settlement with the CFTC — but that his attorney had made a point of declaring that his agreement to pay was solely to avoid a lengthy legal battle and was not an admission of guilt.
Santos, according to a Wall Street Journal report, can still appeal the decision.
Santos lashed out at the platform on X Monday, saying, “Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform. Let’s see how much longer you guys are around for.”
He later added, “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!”
Kalshi has not responded publicly to Santos’ statements.
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