Kalshi has sanctioned three political candidates for trying to make trades on their own races, a move that could signal increased scrutiny by the popular prediction market as the platform and similar companies face mounting pressure to self-police or risk greater regulation.

The three candidates were Mark Moran, an independent running for U.S. Senate in Virginia, Ezekiel Enriquez, a former Republican congressional candidate in Texas, and Matt Klein, a Democratic Minnesota state senator who is running for Congress, according to disciplinary action letters on Kalshi’s site. Mr. Enriquez tried to make a trade in his race, Kalshi said, but was preemptively blocked.

Bobby DeNault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement and legal counsel, said the sanctions are part of Kalshi’s “proactive engineering solutions” to “identify illicit trading activity.” The activity, Mr. DeNault said, violated Kalshi’s rules, which were recently updated to ban this type of activity. It’s unclear if they were trading in a manner that was relying on inside information.

The announcement comes after legislation in both houses of Congress was filed late last month to limit how government officials could use the site.

States are also taking action. On Tuesday, Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, signed an executive order barring state employees from using inside information to trade on prediction markets. On Wednesday, another Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul of New York, issued a similar order.

And last month, Arizona’s attorney general filed criminal charges against Kalshi, accusing the company of operating an illegal gambling venture. A company spokeswoman denied the claims.

Kalshi users can wager on everything from how long the government shutdown will last to which show will top Netflix’s streaming numbers in a given week. There are also markets where people can bet on the direction of the Iran war and President Trump’s policymaking.

In a December post, Kalshi said it had millions of weekly users placing bets across 3,500 markets. The platform is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency tasked with keeping watch over U.S. derivatives markets. The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has ties to Kalshi and Polymarket, another large prediction market, causing concerns among ethics experts.

According to Kalshi, Mr. Klein and Mr. Enriquez admitted to the wrongdoing, accepted small fines and received a five-year suspension. Mr. Klein is the co-author of a bill that would ban prediction markets in Minnesota. The legislation is in committee.

Mr. Moran, who placed a bet on himself, stopped cooperating with Kalshi’s investigation and was eventually assessed a larger fine of $6,229.30, Mr. DeNault said.

Updated 

April 22, 2026, 8:08 p.m. ET

Mr. Moran, who initially ran as a Democrat, said in a brief interview that he had made the bet knowing it would be publicly exposed at some point. He said he had hoped to bring attention to a vice that he called “dangerous to our democracy” and to his own dark horse candidacy.

“It’s almost so ridiculous that it was this easy to bring this attention,” he said, adding that he wanted to use the notoriety to promote his campaign ideas.

Mr. Moran said he was fined much more than the other two candidates because he had refused several offers from Kalshi to settle. “They wanted me to make a public statement, a tweet, that was acknowledging this,” he said, adding that he refused because he saw it as marketing.

Trey Trainor, one of the 12 Republicans in the Texas race that also included Mr. Ezekiel, said prediction markets have changed the world of politics. An elections lawyer and former member of the Federal Election Commission, Mr. Trainor said the markets needed to be better regulated.

“When you start betting on the future of our government like you bet on a football or baseball game, it really devalues what we’re supposed to be about,” he said. “Elections are supposed to be sacrosanct.”

Mr. Enriquez did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Klein, a hospital physician, said in an interview that he had heard from friends in October of a prediction market with wagers on his primary race. Curious about how it worked, he set up an account and bet $50 that he would win.

He then went on to learn more about the industry, including that it can allow people to bet on catastrophic events like war. In January, he signed onto the bill that would ban prediction markets in Minnesota.

Mr. Klein said he was shocked to later find himself sanctioned because of his own wager, which he said was the only one he had ever made on a predictions market.

“I really was unaware of the rules,” he said. “My sense of the market was that you could wager on anything.” Mr. Klein said he paid a settlement fee of $539.85 and agreed to be suspended from the platform.

“This was a pretty small wager and it was made anticipating that I would win the election,” he said. “I bet on my own success, so I was surprised that I was penalized for it.”

He apologized for the mistake and said that his experience demonstrated the need for clearer rules and regulations when it comes to prediction markets.