{"id":601032,"date":"2026-04-23T05:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/601032\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T05:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:55:12","slug":"3-congressional-candidates-fined-for-betting-on-election-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/601032\/","title":{"rendered":"3 congressional candidates fined for betting on election outcomes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three congressional candidates wagered on the outcome of their own elections on Kalshi, according to the prediction market, which said Wednesday that it fined and suspended the men from their platform for five years.<\/p>\n

It is the latest high-profile case of alleged insider trading on prediction markets including Kalshi and Polymarket, which have brought bipartisan scrutiny from Congress<\/a> and calls for stricter regulations of the websites where people can put money on just about anything. <\/p>\n

Kalshi\u2019s disciplinary documents named Mark Moran, who is running as an independent in Virginia\u2019s U.S. Senate race; Ezekiel Enriquez, who ran in a Texas Republican primary for a U.S. House seat; and Matt Klein, a Democratic state senator running for a U.S. House seat in Minnesota. <\/p>\n

Klein and Enriquez both placed bets less than $100 related to their \u201cown candidacy,\u201d Kalshi said. Moran said on social media that he \u201ctraded $100 on myself.\u201d <\/p>\n

These relatively small bets follow mammoth wagers on prediction markets earlier this year that raised eyebrows. In one case, an anonymous Polymarket user made a $400,000 profit<\/a> in January on a wager that former Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro would soon be out of office.<\/p>\n

In March, after two U.S. senators announced legislation that threatened prediction markets, Kalshi and Polymarket highlighted new rules<\/a>, including against political candidates trading on their own campaigns. <\/p>\n

Moran refused to reach an agreement with Kalshi and was fined the most at more than $6,200, while Klein and Enriquez did reach agreements and face penalties of over $530 and $780, respectively, the company said. All were suspended from Kalshi for five years. <\/p>\n

Some politicians said the punishments didn\u2019t go far enough. U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, a California Democrat, slammed the repercussions on social media, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s not a punishment. That\u2019s a parking ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreements are with the company, and not with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates predication markets. The agency is chaired by Michael Selig, who is considered friendly<\/a> to the burgeoning industry.<\/p>\n

Far from denying the allegations, Moran told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he placed the bets intending to draw attention to what he said was unjust sway that platforms like Kalshi have on elections. Moran added that he\u2019d met with the company and had asked for his name to appear on its website.<\/p>\n

Moran said he was fined more than the other candidates because he refused to sign a settlement that would\u2019ve required him to post a statement on X. He said he felt that the stunt was successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I piss people off, when I upset people, and when I captivate their attention, that\u2019s when they have to start listening,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Klein also confirmed Kalshi\u2019s findings in a post on social media on Wednesday. The $50 wager he placed in October was the first time he had used a predictions market, he said in a statement on X, and he was \u201ccurious about how it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a mistake and I apologize,\u201d he wrote, saying that the experience made it clear that the markets need more regulation. <\/p>\n

Klein is a cosponsor of a bill working its way through the Minnesota Legislature to ban most wagering on predictive markets, including the outcome of elections. In an interview, he said he didn\u2019t think there was an inconsistency between his betting $50 on himself to win his primary and his sponsorship of legislation.<\/p>\n

Klein said he spent the winter learning about predictive markets and signed onto the bill well before he learned that his bet violated Kalshi\u2019s rules.<\/p>\n

Enriquez, known as Zeke, lost his House race in the beginning of March with less than two percent of the vote. Contact information for Enriquez was not immediately found to request comment. ___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Hannah Schoenbaum in Logan, Utah, contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three congressional candidates wagered on the outcome of their own elections on Kalshi, according to the prediction market,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[164749,23,1070,15363,793,261458,261459,253789,229684,6429,6661,3,18231,111,1022,1059,795,21,9291,19,22,20,25,24,5148,261460],"class_list":{"0":"post-601032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-gambling","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-mark-moran","14":"tag-matt-klein","15":"tag-michael-selig","16":"tag-mike-levin","17":"tag-minnesota","18":"tag-mn-state-wire","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-nicolas-maduro","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-texas","23":"tag-tx-state-wire","24":"tag-u-s-news","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-house-of-representatives","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa","32":"tag-virginia","33":"tag-zeke-enriquez"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}