France’s national gambling regulator, Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), issued an order on July 16 requiring internet service providers to block prediction market platform Polymarket nationwide.
CoinDesk reported that the order marks a step up from France’s earlier restrictions on Polymarket. Authorities had already imposed a financial transaction ban on the platform in November 2024. The new measure shifts enforcement to the network layer, and violations can carry fines of up to €100,000, or about $114,000.
ANJ says Polymarket homepage odds promote gambling services
At the center of ANJ’s case is the claim that Polymarket’s homepage, which dynamically displays live odds for events users can bet on, itself amounts to the dissemination and promotion of gambling services. ANJ said that runs afoul of French rules that classify prediction markets as illegal gambling, a classification that formally took effect in February 2026.
The regulator also laid out substantive concerns about the platform’s design. It said Polymarket does not set limits on wager sizes, lacks self-exclusion tools, and includes features with addictive characteristics.
Polymarket had not responded to CoinDesk by the time of publication.
Financial restrictions from 2024 did not stop access
France had already moved against Polymarket in November 2024 with a ban on financial transactions linked to the platform. But the report said a VPN was enough to get around that setup, which became the direct reason for the latest move to ISP-level blocking.
Traffic figures pointed to the limits of the earlier approach. In June 2026, Polymarket still logged 578,751 visits from France, with 205,057 unique users.
Restrictions are spreading across major European markets
France is not alone in taking action. Spain issued a temporary block in May 2026, and Portugal joined in January 2026. Italy, Germany, Romania, and Hungary have also imposed restrictions on Polymarket.
Switzerland had already blocked the platform in November 2024, while Belgium and Poland banned its use in early 2025. As described in the ABMedia report, the legal channels available to Polymarket across major European countries are being closed off on a broader scale.