Prediction Market Betting Is Getting People Banned and Arrested

Former U.S. representative George Santos received a lifetime ban from prediction-market platform Kalshi and a $71,000 fine after attempting to manipulate a contract on his attendance at the State of the Union. A Google engineer was charged with insider-trading related to Polymarket, highlighting ambiguous regulatory boundaries for prediction markets. WIRED reporters also reconstructed Flock’s AI-powered person-search tool, assessing its misuse by police and the broader backlash against the surveillance technology.