Kalshi Suspends Republican Candidate Laurie Buckhout for Three Years Over Self-Election Betting

According to ME News, on September 2 (UTC+8), the prediction market exchange Kalshi suspended Laurie Buckhout, a Republican congressional candidate from North Carolina, from trading for three years for purchasing contracts related to her own congressional election. The settlement took effect on Friday, and she is also required to pay a fine of $2,589.96. During her campaign against Democratic Representative Don Davis for North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Buckhout purchased contracts worth less than $1,000. Under Kalshi’s rules, candidates are considered individuals with direct influence over the outcome and are prohibited from trading related contracts. Previously, Kalshi had suspended Minnesota Senator Matt Klein, former Texas congressional candidate Ezekiel Enriquez, and Virginia Senate candidate Mark Moran for five years each for betting on their own elections. Former Representative George Santos was permanently banned and fined $71,356 for trading contracts tied to his attendance at the State of the Union address. Buckhout won the Republican primary in March this year and will face Don Davis again; she narrowly lost to him in 2024 by less than two percentage points. Kalshi is regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and has recorded trading volumes in the billions of dollars over the past year. (Source: ODAILY)