Kalshi to require employment disclosures for sensitive bets after insider trading scrutiny

Prediction market operator Kalshi announced on Tuesday that it will begin collecting employment information from users who want to trade on markets with heightened insider or manipulation risk. The new rules, effective immediately, apply to contracts tied to corporate performance, product launches, national security matters and other sensitive outcomes.

What the new rules require

Under the framework, Kalshi will assign risk scores to markets based on factors such as corporate performance metrics, outcome concentration, national security implications and the potential for manipulation. For markets flagged as high-risk, traders must submit an online form disclosing where they work before they can participate. A company representative told The Wall Street Journal that Kalshi would typically verify the employment information if it finds suspicious activity connected to an account.

By implementing these new integrity measures, we continue to lead the industry on the issue of market integrity amongst federally regulated prediction markets.

The platform also introduced a whistleblower portal and new reporting tools that let users flag suspicious trading activity directly from market pages. Tips will be reviewed by a surveillance team that monitors trading around the clock.

A string of insider trading cases

Prediction markets have drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators as they have grown in popularity. Kalshi said it made more than 20 referrals to law enforcement in the first quarter of 2026 after opening over 150 internal investigations. Reuters reported last week that US federal regulators are investigating whether former congressman George Santos engaged in potential insider trading on Kalshi. Earlier this year, the company discovered that congressional candidates from Minnesota, Texas and Virginia were betting on their own races.

Rival platform Polymarket has faced similar issues. Last month, a Google employee was charged with insider trading for using company information to place bets on Polymarket. A US special forces soldier has also been accused of making successful bets on the platform regarding the removal operation of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; he has pleaded not guilty.

Regulatory landscape

Several US states have attempted to sue prediction markets and regulate them as gambling platforms, but the federal government has claimed sole jurisdiction for the sector under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. International efforts to curb the businesses have gained more traction, with Spain imposing a ban while its domestic leadership investigates how to regulate them.

Kalshi said the measures are based on recommendations from an independent Surveillance Audit Committee established to oversee its market integrity and enforcement program. The changes are set to be rolled out in the coming weeks, with sensitive betting markets related to company performance and national security (including the war in Iran) expected to require employment disclosure, according to a Kalshi official.