Svmuu News: The French National Gambling Authority (ANJ) announced on July 17 that it will block users in France from accessing the prediction market platform Polymarket, following a previous ban on the platform accepting financial transactions from French accounts.
The ANJ stated that although France had already restricted financial transactions related to Polymarket as early as November 2024, the platform’s website remained accessible to French users, and user traffic continued to grow; therefore, it decided to implement further website blocking measures.
Data shows that Polymarket allows users to trade predictions on the outcomes of future events, including in the political, economic, and sports sectors. Since the platform displays real-time betting odds for various events, French regulators consider this practice to constitute advertising for unauthorized gambling websites.
The ANJ noted: “Promoting unauthorized betting or gambling websites in any way constitutes a criminal offense.” Such violations are punishable by a maximum fine of 100,000 euros (approximately 147,000 Singapore dollars).
Regulators stated that although users with French accounts can no longer conduct such transactions, traffic from French IP addresses continues to rise, reaching 578,751 visits in June.
This ban further highlights European regulators’ focus on prediction market platforms. As decentralized prediction markets such as Polymarket experience rapid global growth, the question of whether they constitute financial innovation, information markets, or gambling operations is becoming a focal point of regulatory discussions across nations. (Straitstimes)