George Santos — the first openly gay Republican to be elected to the House and the first Republican to be expelled from it — can now add to his long list of firsts, fines, and improprieties. On Monday, Santos received the first-ever lifetime ban from Kalshi for betting on himself on the prediction market.
Back in February, just a few months after he was released from prison, Santos was on social media saying that he would be attending the State of the Union to support the president who had just pardoned him. Instead, Santos took advantage of an easily exploitable Kalshi market — Who Will Attend the State of the Union? — to bet the under. He never showed up and made more than $17,000 on the bet, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal regulator overseeing prediction markets. In July, the CFTC ordered Santos to pay $35,000 for “manipulative trading.”
Santos, who was once a paid spokesman for Kalshi’s main competitor, Polymarket, agreed to pay the fine. (His attorney, who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, added that it was not an admission of guilt.) Kalshi has imposed a $71,356 fine, which would require him to record over 7,000 videos on Cameo to pay off, at his current rate.
