Trump teleprompter operator faces investigation over Kalshi bets on White House statements

The operator allegedly raked in more than $90,000 through Kalshi on what words and phrases Trump would say during scheduled speeches.

by · Shacknews

A teleprompter operator for the White House has found himself under federal investigation for taking contracts on Donald Trump’s scheduled speeches through the predictive market platform Kalshi. 

Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator came under suspicion when Kalshi’s surveillance team flagged and referred the trades to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as reported by CNBC. A person familiar with the CFTC investigation has identified the operator as Gabriel Perez. The CFTC is now investigating the matter, as shared by Kalshi Head of Enforcement Robert DeNault. The operator was said to have pulled in over $90,000 in profits before Kalshi noticed and froze the money. The operator achieved this by taking out contracts on predicted words and phrases Trump would say during his scheduled speeches.

Kalshi has a variety of "Mentions" markets centered around what Donald Trump will and won't say during his speeches, of which Gabriel Perez allegedly took advantage.
Source: Kalshi

Predictive markets have become a growing trend in the United States where users of platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi are using them to take contracts on various problematic situations. Earlier this week, Kalshi filed for an expansion to its products which would allow users to take out such contracts on air traffic delays and cancellations. Meanwhile, the market has been buzzing enough that it caught the eyes of Meta, which has been teasing an effort to create its own predictive market services and products.

As he is still under investigation, it remains to be seen what the full results of that investigation will reveal, as well as any potential consequences. Stay tuned to the Kalshi topic for more news and updates.

Sign up for our monthly roundup of exclusive content, top stories, and updates from Shacknews - once a month, no spam.

Shacknews staff does not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in their content. Shacknews strictly prohibits the use of its content for AI training or to generate text, including text in the style or format used for this publication. Shacknews reserves all rights to this work.