--- title: "Kalshi Just Issued Its First-Ever Lifetime Ban to the Funniest Person You Can Possibly Imagine" description: "The prediction market Kalshi just handed its first every lifetime ban to a notorious career fraudster and former congressman." date: "2026-09-02" modified: "2026-09-02" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/kalshi-first-lifetime-ban-george-santos" categories: - "Finance" - "Future Society" --- # Kalshi Just Issued Its First-Ever Lifetime Ban to the Funniest Person You Can Possibly Imagine ![George Santos is shown wearing a suit, tie, and sunglasses.]() *Getty / Michael M. Santiago / Staff* Former Republican congressman and ironic meme icon George Santos was just banned from Kalshi — for life. It's the first lifetime ban that the prediction market has ever handed out, the [*New York Times* reports](), which is pretty incredible considering [all the inside trading]() that's suspected to happen on the platform. There was pretty much nothing "suspected" about Santos' offenses, though, which were about as blatant as they come. According to a [notice]() Kalshi posted this week, Santos placed multiple bets on markets related to his attendance of president Donald Trump's State of the Union address in February this year. Needless to say, "as a person capable of influencing the outcome of the underlying event, Santos was prohibited from trading in this market," the notice explained. He then began making public statements about attending the event to influence the price of the contracts. Some of those statements were "false or misleading." Just days before the address, for example, Santos [posted]() a video on X saying, "I'm going to be there for the State of Union in the gallery, guys," before writing a follow-up telling his followers he was stuck in an airport, watching it on TV. "FML," he added. Santos's unsubtle market-moving utterances were successful at manipulating the price of the "Yes or No" contracts he purchased, Kalshi's Compliance Department found. All told, he made nearly $18,000 in profit from the scheme. Santos won't see the inside of a cell, but he is getting a heavy slap on the wrist. Kalshi fined him $71,356, and it also flagged the bets to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The federal agency ordered Santos to return all the profits he made as part of a settlement both parties reached in July, and slapped him with its own $17,500 fine for good measure. Anyone familiar with Santos's antics won't be surprised by this latest one. The 38-year-old is a notorious fabulist and con artist. He was expelled from Congress in 2023 after an ethics investigation, following the discovery by news outlets that he'd embezzled campaign funds and had lied heavily in his biography. In 2024, he plead guilty to wire fraud and identity theft. His seven year sentence was commuted by — who else — Trump last year. Ironically, Santos used to be a paid ambassador for Polymarket, Kalshi's biggest rival. Polymarket dropped him like a hot potato, though, once the CFTC began poking into his suspicious Kalshi bets. The ban and hefty fines haven't caused him to lose his spunk, though. "Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform," Santos [wrote on X](). "Let’s see how much longer you guys are around for." **More on prediction markets:** [*Insider Trading on Polymarket Is Revealing Military Secrets*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()