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Three congressional candidates, including Virginia U.S. Senate hopeful Mark Moran, have been fined and barred from Kalshi for five years after wagering on their own elections, the prediction market announced Wednesday.

Kalshi’s disciplinary documents named Moran, an independent candidate in Virginia; Ezekiel “Zeke” Enriquez, who competed in a Texas Republican primary for the U.S. House; and Minnesota Democratic state Sen. Matt Klein, who is running for Congress.

Moran said on social media that he “traded $100 on myself.” Klein and Enriquez each placed less than $100 in wagers connected to their candidacies, according to Kalshi.

Moran declined to settle with the company and received the largest fine, totaling more than $6,200. Klein and Enriquez reached agreements with Kalshi and were penalized more than $530 and $780, respectively.

All three candidates were suspended from the platform for five years.

U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, a California Democrat, criticized the penalties as inadequate, writing on social media, “That’s not a punishment. That’s a parking ticket.”

The disciplinary agreements were reached with Kalshi, not the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets. The agency is led by Michael Selig, who is viewed as friendly toward the growing industry.

Moran Says Wager Was Meant to Draw Attention

Moran acknowledged placing the bet and told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he did so to highlight what he considers the unfair influence of platforms such as Kalshi on elections. He said he met with the company and asked for his name to be displayed on its website.

According to Moran, his fine was higher because he refused to sign a settlement that would have required him to publish a statement on X. He described the stunt as a success.

“When I piss people off, when I upset people, and when I captivate their attention, that’s when they have to start listening,” he said.

Moran, a former reality television star and investment banker, indicated in January that he would challenge longtime Sen. Mark Warner in the Democratic primary. The McLean native announced earlier this month that he had left the primary and would run as an independent instead.

Warner has not faced a primary during his 18 years in the Senate. That streak now appears likely to continue after three other prospective challengers withdrew, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Republicans are scheduled to hold a primary Aug. 4. The candidates are KTech CEO and former federal employee Kim Farrington, retired U.S. Army Gen. Bert Mizusawa, and former CIA case officer and Reston resident David Williams.

Klein Apologizes for $50 Bet

Klein also confirmed Kalshi’s findings Wednesday. He said the $50 wager he placed in October was his first experience with a prediction market and that he was curious about how it operated.

“This was a mistake and I apologize,” Klein wrote on X, adding that the experience convinced him the markets require greater regulation.

Klein is a cosponsor of legislation moving through the Minnesota Legislature that would prohibit most prediction-market wagering, including bets on election results. He said there was no inconsistency between wagering $50 on his primary and backing the bill.

Klein said he spent the winter studying prediction markets and joined the legislation well before learning that his wager violated Kalshi’s rules.

Enriquez lost his House race in early March after receiving less than 2% of the vote. Contact information for him was not immediately available.

The cases add to mounting scrutiny of prediction markets, including Kalshi and Polymarket, amid allegations that people with inside information could profit from political or world events.

An anonymous Polymarket user made a $400,000 profit in January by betting that former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would soon leave office. After two U.S. senators introduced legislation threatening the industry in March, Kalshi and Polymarket publicized new restrictions, including rules barring political candidates from trading on their own campaigns.