A White House teleprompter operator who was placing online bets related to President Donald Trump’s public remarks has been placed on unpaid leave.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Thursday that the president placed the staffer on leave and that the person is complying with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The operator placed the trades on Kalshi, the online prediction market platform, the company confirmed.
Robert DeNault, the head of enforcement at Kalshi, said in a statement that the company’s surveillance team “promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC after an exchange investigation.”
The White House staffer’s irregular trades were flagged by Kalshi in March, according to the company. The company said that bets were placed on common words in Trump’s speeches and that they did not appear to be particularly sensitive topics.
Kalshi’s surveillance analysts subsequently discovered that the account holder was employed by the federal government and was a teleprompter operator. His account, which had over $90,000 in profits, was then frozen, and an investigation, which included interviewing the staffer, ensued.
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Betting on the outcome of political or government actions is a booming industry. In January, Kalshi told The Washington Post that the company had some $129 million at stake on political markets.
Trump, who famously owned a casino in Atlantic City, said in April that he wasn’t much of a fan of prediction markets. But he seemed to quickly change his tune, telling reporters less than a week later that he “knows some people who are very smart, and they like it.”
The probe into the White House staffer marks the latest in a growing number of prosecutorial efforts against politicians and government employees placing online wagers that appear to be based on privileged information.
In April, federal authorities charged a Special Forces soldier involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with using inside information about the raid to win roughly $400,000 through bets placed on online prediction markets. Also that month, three congressional candidates were fined and suspended from Kalshi for wagering on the outcome of their own elections.
The Trump administration has broadly embraced online sports betting and prediction markets. Their company logos were emblazoned on the octagon used at the UFC fight held on the White House grounds. And the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. advises Kalshi and Polymarket.
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