00:00The online prediction market Kalshi is refusing to pay about $54 million in winnings
00:05on a trade related to the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. I know, tasteful. Many users of the
00:12site thought that they won big on a wager that Khamenei would, quote, be out as supreme leader
00:17by Saturday, which is the day he was ultimately killed by U.S. and Israeli strikes. But Kalshi
00:22says no dice because its guidelines prohibit bets, quote, directly tied to death. Because
00:28obviously. Users, however, are saying not so fast. One user, an Israeli-American business
00:33executive in New York, says his app showed that he won payouts of more than $63,000 on
00:39a Khamenei bet, but then his trade was frozen. He told the Washington Post, quote, then they
00:44changed the rules and everybody got screwed. So the question is, was the prohibition on death
00:50bets made before or after the company was about to lose big? In the hours before Khamenei's
00:56death, Kalshi promoted the trade on X and posted, quote, reminder, Kalshi does not offer markets
01:02that settle on death, which is kind, I don't know, confusing, kind of mixed signals there.
01:06Kalshi told the Post in a statement, quote, our rules were clear from the beginning. We
01:10never changed them and we settled based on the rules.
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