Polymarket said it will challenge a nationwide website block in France after the country’s gambling regulator moved to cut off access to the platform.
In a statement, the decentralized prediction market operator said it regretted the decision and plans to pursue legal action against the order. Polymarket said it had already stopped offering trading functions to users in France in November 2024, but French regulators still concluded that the website was providing unauthorized gambling products.
French regulator ordered ISPs to block the site
After Ukraine, Argentina and Spain, France has become the latest country to impose an internet blocking order on Polymarket. France’s Autorité Nationale des Jeux, or ANJ, last week told internet service providers to block access to the website.
Authorities said that even though trading functions had been restricted, the platform was still publicly displaying market odds and prediction information. In the regulator’s view, that amounted to promoting illegal gambling.
The regulator also said the platform lacked adequate identity verification and carried potential risks tied to user fund losses and market manipulation.
Polymarket says the measure is excessive
Polymarket said it would file a legal challenge against the enforcement action. The company said that since disabling trading for users in France in November 2024, the site has only provided market probability information for public viewing.
It argued that most visitors do not come to trade or place bets, and that a full website block harms users who only want access to information. The company described the enforcement approach as excessive and said it would remain in contact with prosecutors to seek an operating path that complies with the law.
Dispute centers on how the platform is classified
At the center of the case is the legal characterization of Polymarket’s contracts. The company describes itself as a blockchain-based financial platform built on a peer-to-peer structure, where prices are determined entirely by supply and demand among participants.
Polymarket said it does not set odds, does not hold positions in any market and does not profit from prediction outcomes. It says that sets it apart from traditional gambling operators that open books, set odds and take the other side of customer wagers. French regulators, however, still classify that peer-to-peer model as unlicensed illegal gambling.
Pressure on decentralized prediction markets is growing
France is not the only country taking a tougher line. Brazil, India, Indonesia and Romania have also restricted access to Polymarket or placed it on lists of unauthorized gambling services.
Officials in Ukraine have also said there is currently no suitable legal framework that would allow the platform to operate lawfully. The broader debate over prediction markets is increasingly colliding with national compliance rules and financial technology innovation.