During a debate on Oct. 16 for New York City’s upcoming mayoral election, the online betting site Kalshi distributed a fake quote attributed to one of the participants. The deception came as it took bets on what was going to be said during the debate.
Kalshi users could have been influenced by the deception and lost money. The platform says it offers online gambling in 140 countries, including the U.S.
Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was in the middle of a sentence when Kalshi clipped the quote mid-sentence and distributed it to its roughly 187,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter). At the time, Kalshi was allowing “yes/no” gambling on whether candidates would say specific words during the debate.
Unsuspecting traders could have been financially harmed.
Mamdani’s remarks came shortly after the debate started.
“Working with New Yorkers to finally raise taxes”
Zohran Mamdani just five minutes into the debate pic.twitter.com/T1kgDySH4s
— Kalshi (@Kalshi) October 16, 2025
The candidate went on to say he wanted to raise taxes on “Cuomo’s donors.”
Kalshi was widely condemned for the fake quote:
“Reprehensible for a platform that takes bets on the election to cut a candidate’s quote off mid-sentence and promote it,” commented Sam McQuillan, a journalist at Legal Sports Report, which covers the sports betting industry.
“Prediction market company clips a 4-second mid-sentence video to influence their market behavior,” one observer said.
“An online gambling company cutting clips mid-sentence to fit a narrative? It’s more likely than you think,” another user remarked.
How Kalshi NYC Debate Users Could Have Been Hurt
Kalshi’s social media post wasn’t simply taking something a political candidate said out of context for social media engagement. It was a fake quote because it didn’t even capture the full sentence the candidate was saying. It could have financially harmed consumers of the platform’s debate betting market.
While most bettors who had put money into the “what will be said” market at the time were likely watching the debate live, the fake quote could have influenced this specific market’s activity. Because the fake quote came near the debate’s start, the quote’s content could have had implications for later debate comments. The Kalshi debate market closed when the debate finished.
Furthermore, bettors in the peer-to-peer market have fractions of a second to react to what candidates say. These consumers often follow social media to obtain information for their wagers.
A false quote promoted by the gambling platform itself could have also impacted user activity in other markets related to the election. Here’s what else Kalshi offers for the NYC mayoral race:
- Who will win the election
- Which boroughs will Mamdani win
- Margin of victory for Mamdani
- What % of the vote will Mamdani get
- Will Mamdani win at least 50% of the vote
- What % of the vote will Cuomo get
Bettors in those markets may have made financial decisions based on the fake quote distributed by Kalshi.
Bottom Line
The so-called prediction betting sector has argued that its markets are more accurate than polls. It has also made the pitch to society that it can be a source of truth.
However, fake quotes distributed by official company accounts undermine this claim.
For consumers, relying on Kalshi’s official company social media account for information on their bets could cause financial loss and harm.
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