Kalshi probes shady bets on new White House press secretary: report
In this news:
Key takeaways
- Kalshi is investigating suspicious bets made on the appointment of Katie Zacharia as White House press secretary.
- A small number of precisely timed wagers yielded thousands of dollars in payouts shortly before the announcement.
- Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket face ongoing scrutiny over insider trading and unusual activity.
Kalshi is probing a series of shady bets about the new White House press secretary, according to a report published hours after Katie Zacharia was named to the high-profile job.
The massive prediction market platform said it was looking into wagers that accurately predicted the conservative commentator would land the role, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
A minimum of three small but precisely-timed bets were reportedly placed on Zacharia not long before news outlets began reporting the news, netting the bettors a few thousands bucks.
Investigation into suspicious wagers
The Journal scoured publicly available Kalshi data to find a $19 bet placed around 10:43 p.m. Thursday. That stood to net the bettor $1,896.
Two more bets reportedly came around 1:41 p.m. Friday, the paper reported. The wagers of $74 and $80 were poised to bring in $7,712 total.
A Kalshi spokeswoman declined to talk about the bets on the White House press secretary, telling The Post, “We can’t comment on ongoing investigations.”
Broader scrutiny of prediction markets
Recent months have seen a number of shady trades on Kalshi and rival Polymarket — which are facing a mountain of litigation from state authorities.
A US special forces soldier was charged in the spring for allegedly using classified information about the mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to win more than $400,000 on the Polymarket.
More recently, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission reportedly launched a probe of unusual trading activity on Kalshi after billions of dollars worth of near-identical crypto trades raised questions about possible “wash trading.”
The Post has sought comment from the White House.
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