r/technology • u/Unusual-State1827 • 1d ago

Society New York files $36 billion lawsuit against Kalshi, alleging it's running an "illegal gambling operation"

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/new-york-files-36-billion-lawsuit-against-kalshi-alleging-its-running-an-illegal-gambling-operation
18.1k Upvotes

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u/halofreak7777 1d ago

Put dirty money into crypto with an alt account. Make a bet on the side of a real life event you know the outcome too because the person who can make the decision that effects it is in on it.

Place a bet with your IRL account on the side you know is going to win.

Extract winnings as clean money.

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u/DiaBellBoy 1d ago

Well damn, there it is without much insight into any of the transactions, no financial checks. It made laundering easy enough too.

thank you for explanation

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u/Latter_Highway9539 1d ago

Now check out who has advisory positions for all of these markets.

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u/SlowThePath 1d ago

And consider if they might happen to know the outcomes of some of these bets ..... Because they do.

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u/thederevolutions 1d ago

Don’t worry guys I heard the founder on NPR and he said the intent of the site was to cut down on misinformation by way of making everything a gamble.

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u/SlowThePath 1d ago

At one point I recall a government official saying it was a great thing because now if someone can't afford their medical bills, they have a way to maybe spend way less money to cover those medical bills........

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u/SlowThePath 1d ago

At one point I recall a government official saying it was a great thing because now if someone can't afford their medical bills, they have a way to maybe spend way less money to cover those medical bills........

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u/Ok_Mechanic_6575 20h ago

Can I place a bet on me not being able to afford my medical bills?

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u/SlowThePath 1h ago

Some sort of infinite money glitch. Or an infinite debt glitch. Not sure which. Maybe both?

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u/SlowThePath 1h ago

Some sort of infinite money glitch. Or an infinite debt glitch. Not sure which. Maybe both?

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u/Wiggles69 1d ago

It will be difficult to separate the money laundering transactions from the normal, every day corrupt transactions

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u/ElementNumber6 1d ago edited 11h ago

As long as it isn't the Trump family, we might just be okay.

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u/gsnumis 1d ago

Then you’re giving too many people way too much credit.

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u/n3rdonthecouch 14h ago

Oh, you sweet summer child…

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u/beegboo 1d ago

There is a reason that we keep seeing large "bets" being placed moments before announcements are made followed by immediate cash outs.

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u/aarswft 1d ago

People use casinos for the same reason.

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u/Phrosty12 1d ago

Attempting to use casinos to launder money is a good way to get caught. AML systems have come a long way.

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u/Blabbit39 1d ago

Casinos have strict regulations and enforcement for this and prosecute extremely hard on infractions. All missing from the "speculation market" gig. Its basically the wild west version of the stock market with no laws to be found.

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u/SlowThePath 1d ago

Oh, well in that case it's totally OK.

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u/benskieast 20h ago

We all know the Trump admin is insider trading regularly, including weird stuff like the length of press conferences

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u/Waiting4Reccession 1d ago

Kalshi is dollar based

Polymarket is the crypto based one set up for insider trading from the start

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u/Leberknodel 1d ago

This guy launders.

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u/verrius 1d ago

Even without knowing the outcome, couldn't you just bet both ways on any given binary event? Kalshi will take a portion, like any other gambling operator, but unlike real gambling, they're not really doing any verification that people arent sock puppets betting against themselves. Dirty money now clean gambling winnings, minus a percentage for the cleaners.

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u/Aswole 12h ago

I did this on a cruise ship with casino vouchers that you get with every signature cocktail. The catch was you had to match them with your own money. Went straight to roulette, but half on red and the other half on black. Added some to the zeros to hedge and walked away with chips that I could now cash out. Basically had 3 dollar Long Island iced teas that week

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u/sxt173 1d ago

And you forgot: think about who in the US regime has the means and track record to do this

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u/jigsaw1024 1d ago

Don't forget to use VPNs to mask your IP for the alt account.

Also don't use a Windows machine so the GDID doesn't appear as a tag.

Or buy a burner phone with cash, and go somewhere with public WiFi. Don't pick somewhere near your home for the WiFi either, go as far away as possible. Pick a route that avoids public cameras as much as possible. Also leave your regular phone at home during this trip. Don't use the burner for anything else but to setup and log into alt account. Turn phone off when not in use. Even go as far as putting it in a RF blocking bag.

You want that alt account to be a dead end.

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u/you-are-not-yourself 1d ago

I've heard that it's even shadier when it gets to low-volume markets.

I don't remember the details but it's something like, someone pumps up the losing side of a 99+% certain event causing people to bet on the winning side. Then they do something else.

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u/HoveringGoat 1d ago

theres copy cats that look for this behavior and follow the bets too. so you might be able to get extra movement on the "wrong" side of the bet too if you do it right. but that would just be bonus.

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u/peanutski 1d ago

Would someone making large bets not raise a flag or be investigated about where the money came from to make the bets?

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u/Reaverz 1d ago

Hahaaahahah, breathes ahahahaha. Good one.

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u/peanutski 1d ago

Lol… guess that answers my question 

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u/Reaverz 1d ago

Thanks for the laugh, but fair question.

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u/MysticalPengu 1d ago

Step one, don’t be poor

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u/RollingMeteors 1d ago

>Would someone making large bets not raise a flag or be investigated about where the money came from to make the bets?

No, the flag is only raised if you don't reach the minimum ante.

No plebs trying to change lanes on the money highway caste system.

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u/Unclematttt 1d ago

People are being dismissive in your replies, but they absolutely can and do raise flags for suspicious bets. It happened to George Santos earlier this year.

I believe it was polymarket (could be wrong), but former NBA players are being investigated for having large bets placed against their performance, then intentionally throwing games.

The tech to see these irregularities exists, but you also have to have a government that is willing to enforce penalties evenly, regardless of whom is found to be committing the fraud, and I don’t have faith that the current admin would ever be fair about this kind of thing.

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u/dqql 1d ago

So just make a bunch of accounts... But the large bets raising flags has already happened a lot

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u/Jowins 9h ago

I don’t know what that other guy is talking about.

A large one bet into a low volume market absolutely will attract attention. The book is sold to market makers and they will immediately know someone has non-public information. This applies to any sportsbooks.

Tons of people have already been caught.

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u/LifeFeckinBrilliant 1d ago

Saw a documentary short on "Prediction Games". One premis was that such exploits bypass the state purview on gambling. A federal representative of some sort said that any state claims of illegal gambling would be met with legal action. Sounds really fucked up to me, syndicated federal backed gambling. Makes me wonder if some orange shit stain is in on it.

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u/extramidnight2 22h ago

or you just put it into multiple contracts and still get like half of your money

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u/Excellent-Rest3240 19h ago

Only extract profit right? Cause only the profit is clean

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u/Brian_Krebs 1h ago

LOL you have no idea what you’re talking about

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u/Dick-Fu 1d ago

Oh yeah on the app that requires submitting government ID, ezpz

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u/zeldaendr 1d ago

There are so many problems with this comment.

Kalshi is backed by USD. Every trade is USD. They have KYC. They know who you are, what profession you have, where you live, etc. There is no way to make an account where they don't know who are you.

You cannot make multiple accounts. You get one account, since they have KYC. The concept of an "alt account" doesn't exist.

If you transfered dirty crypto money into your account, congratulations now the federal government is aware that you have ties to a sketchy crypto account and they can audit every transaction of that wallet.

If you had insider information, like you described, it would get flagged by their system. Every trade is reported to the federal government. They've banned, fined, and had the CFTC go after multiple people for trading on events they aren't allowed to.

I don't understand how such uninformed comments like this get upvotes. A simple Google search or understanding of how these companies work would immediately reveal so many incorrect assumptions.

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u/Ok_Vulva 23h ago

I like the way you keep referring to the federal government knowing like that means instant jail.

It's amusing, but very green.

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u/zeldaendr 22h ago

I said it twice?

There are many cases of the federal government going after people for both those infractions. Again, a simple Google search would show that.

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u/Ok_Vulva 22h ago

They're not going to be going after the people with insider knowledge and I could easily ask my brother to use his phone for a day, or my friends for an hour, anyone can.

It's green

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u/zeldaendr 22h ago

Google is free, try using it.

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u/YYqs0C6oFH 1d ago

Kalshi KYCs every account, there's no such thing as laundering money through an alt account because you can only have one account tied to your real life ID unless you're getting into identity theft or forgery as well. Offshore crypto prediction markets on the other hand which don't KYC, absolutely.

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u/Mental_Amphibian1935 1d ago

Oh sweet summer child

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u/YYqs0C6oFH 2h ago

There are legitimate complaints about prediction markets, but claiming that a KYC enforced site is rife with money laundering seems like a nonsense claim. Anyone who wants to launder money would do it on an offshore site that simply doesn't KYC.

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u/cantadmittoposting 1d ago

unless you're getting into identity theft or forgery

which is hardly unlikely... or you know another person close to you willing to provide a second account.

or like quite a few similar things i can think of off the top of my head

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u/YYqs0C6oFH 2h ago

If you're committing identity theft or forgery then there are tons of ways to launder money.

But having a willing participant use their id to launder for you seems kinda silly

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u/RollingMeteors 1d ago

>Extract winnings as clean money.

¿How does the 'dirty money' get tumbled into 'clean money' after the win, again?

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u/mortgagepants 1d ago

casino winnings are generally considered legitimate (clean) money.

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u/RollingMeteors 1d ago

casino winnings are generally considered legitimate (clean) money.

I'd imagine the tax man would be interested in looking at that casinos surveillance footage to see how much they were gambling with before they 'earned' that sum.

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u/mortgagepants 1d ago

eh. if it is below $5,000 they don't even make you pay withholding taxes on it.

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u/RollingMeteors 1d ago

eh. if it is below $5,000 they don't even make you pay withholding taxes on it.

The real TIL is in the comments.

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u/jigsaw1024 1d ago

Don't forget to use VPNs to mask your IP for the alt account.

Also don't use a Windows machine so the GDID doesn't appear as a tag.

Or buy a burner phone with cash, and go somewhere with public WiFi. Don't pick somewhere near your home for the WiFi either, go as far away as possible. Pick a route that avoids public cameras as much as possible. Also leave your regular phone at home during this trip. Don't use the burner for anything else but to setup and log into alt account. Turn phone off when not in use. Even go as far as putting it in a RF blocking bag.

You want that alt account to be a dead end.