Kalshi announced its first lifetime ban Monday, permanently suspending former Republican Rep. George Santos’ access to the online prediction market for engaging in insider trading related to his attendance at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.

Santos, who represented New York’s 3rd Congressional District until he was expelled from Congress in 2023, violated several of Kalshi’s rules when he bet on his possible appearance at the February speech, according to a notice of disciplinary action posted on the company’s site. Kalshi said Santos made statements intended to manipulate the price of the related contracts he purchased and that he failed to fully cooperate with the company’s investigation. In addition to the ban, Kalshi said it imposed a $71,356 penalty.

“Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform. Let’s see how much longer you guys are around for,” Santos wrote Monday in an X post.

“By the way, @Kalshi is such an unserious company; it violates its own notices and deadlines lol,” he wrote in a subsequent post. “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!”

When asked for a response to Santos’ remarks, a Kalshi spokeswoman appeared to contradict his claim of a 30-day notice, telling MS NOW via email that it was a 15-day notice.

Last month, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Santos agreed to pay more than $35,000 after the federal regulator concluded he improperly profited from trades tied to his possible attendance at the State of the Union.

At the time, Santos’ attorney, Joseph W. Murray, said in a statement that his client had “agreed to resolve” the CFTC’s inquiry and to “put this matter behind him.” He noted that Santos’ settlement does not include an admission of the federal regulator’s “allegations, findings or conclusions.”

The drama unfolded when Santos posted a video to X on Feb. 23, one day before the address. Santos said he would attend the event and sit in the gallery rather than on the House floor, where he is permanently barred under House rules.

Despite his public RSVP, Santos placed a bet on Kalshi that he would not attend the event. Hours before Trump was set to deliver his speech, Santos announced his absence.

“Watching SOTU from an airport tv was not part of the plan!” Santos posted on X.

Santos won more than $17,000 from his “unlawful trading” on his attendance, according to the CFTC.

Santos’ activities on Kalshi were flagged to the CFTC, the Department of Justice and other online prediction markets, a source with knowledge of the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told MS NOW in June.

“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,” Kalshi said in a statement Monday. “As a person capable of influencing the outcome of the underlying event, Santos was prohibited from trading in this market under Kalshi Exchange Rule 5.17(z). Despite this, between February 2 and February 25, 2026, Santos placed a series of large trades in a market where the underlying contracts depended upon his own attendance at the event.”

Kalshi announced punitive actions against four other users Monday, including a three-year suspension on North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout. Buckhout, a Trump-endorsed candidate trying to flip a Democratic seat, bought less than $1,000 worth of contracts related to her own candidacy, according to Kalshi. She was fined $2,589.96. Former Planet Fitness President Ben Midgley, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate in Maine, and Stephen Cloobeck, the founder of Diamond Resorts who ran for California governor as a Democrat, were temporarily suspended and fined for betting on their respective unsuccessful campaigns.

Santos was first elected to Congress in 2022 after flipping a Democratic seat in Long Island. But his congressional career was short-lived. The House Ethics Committee announced in November 2023 that it found “substantial evidence” that Santos misused campaign funds for his personal benefit, including Botox treatments, an OnlyFans subscription and other luxury items. Santos called the committee’s report on its investigation into him a “grave miscarriage of Justice” but said he would not resign. The House voted to remove Santos from office the following month.

After his expulsion, he pleaded guilty in 2024 to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and admitted to all the conduct he was charged with in a 23-count federal indictment, including stealing people’s identities and charging his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization.

He began serving his seven-year sentence in New Jersey in July 2025, but Trump commuted his sentence in October, saying the former lawmaker was “horribly mistreated.”

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