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Campaign staffers keep trying to bet on their own races on Kalshi

Original version ·

Working on a political campaign offers a front-row seat to internal polling data, raising an obvious question for some staffers: how to turn that secret knowledge into cash on prediction markets.

The prediction market Kalshi recently got the green light to let Americans bet on elections. And guess who showed up to play? The actual campaign staffers who have access to non-public internal data.

Kalshi claims they have already blocked dozens of these inside-job trades. But the system is basically a sieve. An investigation by NPR already caught at least one campaign insider successfully placing a bet that slipped right past the platform filters.

The rules are supposed to prevent this, but apparently, the urge to day-trade a boss's political future is just too strong. Campaign insiders are literally treating democratic elections like a rigged casino where they hold the deck.

Working eighty hours a week just to short a candidate's polling numbers is a level of hustle that is hard to even comprehend.

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7/24
  1. Suburban Astronaut
    shorting your own candidate is crazy work lmao
    +3 funnyA masterclass in professional suicide, but at least the portfolio looks green while the career burns
  2. Midwest Yankee
    And people wonder why trust in politics is at an all-time low. These staffers are probably leaking bad polling on purpose just to cash out on their bets.
    +4 solidFinally, someone realized that political strategy is just insider trading with more flags and fewer ethics