The White House Teleprompter operator bet on Trump’s speeches, Kalshi says
A White House teleprompter used his position to win about $100,000 by betting on the Kalshi prediction market about what President Trump would say in his speeches, the company said Thursday.
It was the latest allegation that someone used insider information to profit on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, which have quickly grown into cultural phenomena.
In this case, Kalshi said Gabriel Perez, Mr. Trump’s technical assistant, bet on common words that appear in the president’s speeches, such as country names and economic terms. In March, when Kalshi’s tracking systems flagged some of Mr. Perez’s trades, the company froze the funds in his account and referred the case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets.
Mr. Perez is in discussions with federal regulators to settle allegations that he used his inside knowledge of the president’s speeches to place bets and was cooperative, a person familiar with the conversations said.
“We charged this individual and assisted regulators in this matter and provided the evidence we collected, as we do with any referral,” Robert DeNault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement, said in an emailed statement, citing the company’s rules against insider trading.
A spokeswoman for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the agency could not “confirm or deny the investigation.” Mr. Perez could not immediately be reached for comment. ABC News reported the incident earlier.
Prediction markets allow people to bet on everything from state elections to World Cup matches to who will win on ‘Love Island’. The companies have attracted billions of dollars in business, but their popularity has raised concerns about whether they are violating state gambling laws and being manipulated by insiders.
In April, three political candidates were found trying to bet on their own races. In June, federal authorities said they were investigating whether former Representative George Santos had made a bet to attend Mr. Trump’s State of the Union address.
In March, the White House warned staffers against using insider information to place bets on prediction markets, just weeks before federal prosecutors accused a Special Forces soldier of using classified information to bet on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro at Polymarket.
Mr. Trump is scheduled to make a prime-time appearance on election security and voting machines on Thursday. on Kalshi, users bet he says “Save America Act,” “fraud” and “Iran” more than three times, among other phrases and topics.
At a press briefing on Thursday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said she had spoken to Mr Trump about reports that his teleprompter operator was making money from his speeches on prediction markets and that he called it a “disgrace”.
“This person will no longer be here,” she said. “That was the president’s decision.
Ms. Leavitt was also asked whether other White House staff members were suspected of using inside information to make money in the prediction markets. “Not that I know of,” she said.
She added: “All staff and officials here at the White House have very strict ethical requirements” against such behavior.
Shawn McCreesh contributed reporting.