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(Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader\/AP photo)<\/p>\n
Kalshi, a betting company, is being sued for not paying out $54 million to users who predicted Iran\u2019s supreme leader would be out of office by March 1, just days after he was killed.<\/p>\n
A class action lawsuit was filed on Thursday that called Kalshi\u2019s actions \u201cdeceptive\u201d and \u201cpredatory.\u201d Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran\u2019s<\/a> ex-supreme leader<\/a>, was killed, along with other high-ranking government officials in strikes this week launched by both the U.S. and Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cWith an American naval armada amassed on Iran\u2019s doorstep and military conflict not merely foreseeable but widely anticipated, consumers understood that the most likely\u2014and in many cases the only realistic\u2014mechanism by which an 85-year-old autocratic leader would \u2018leave office\u2019 was through his death. Defendants understood this as well,\u201d the lawsuit reads.<\/p>\n Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour has defended his company\u2019s decision, saying his company does not deal with markets \u201cdirectly tied to death.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t list markets directly tied to death,\u201d the CEO wrote on Saturday on X. \u201cWhen there are markets where potential outcomes involve death, we design the rules to prevent people from profiting from death. That is what we did here.\u201d<\/p>\n Reacting to news of the lawsuit, Mansour doubled down on his defense of refusing the payouts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe stand by principle and law: 1. Kalshi didn\u2019t deviate from its market rules. They were clear that death did not resolve the market to \u2018Yes,”\u201d he wrote. \u201c2. Kalshi\u2019s rules prevented a \u2018death market\u2019, where traders directly profit from death. This is a good thing (+ we\u2019re a US based market). 3. Kalshi made no money here, and even reimbursed all losses out of pocket. Not a single user walked away losing money from this market.\u201d<\/p>\n We stand by principle and law:<\/p>\n 1. Kalshi didn’t deviate from its market rules. They were clear that death did not resolve the market to “Yes”.<\/p>\n 2. Kalshi’s rules prevented a ‘death market’, where traders directly profit from death. This is a good thing (+ we’re a US based\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/gXMeQECFLz<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Tarek Mansour (@mansourtarek_) March 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Mansour has argued that there is a \u201cdeath carveout\u201d rule that has always been part of his company\u2019s policy.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the rules were clear and we tried our best to highlight them, traders vocalized they were not prominent enough,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cWe heard you, and we decided to reimburse out of pocket for all fees and all net losses from trading in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n New: The Mediaite One-Sheet “Newsletter of Newsletters”
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