France moves to block Polymarket website over unauthorised betting
France said it will block Polymarket’s website after users continued to access the online prediction market despite an earlier payments ban. The gaming regulator also cited rising French traffic and concerns linked to betting integrity.
PARIS: France said on Friday it was blocking access to online prediction platform Polymarket, saying users were still placing wagers despite restrictions already imposed on the site.
The country’s national gaming authority, ANJ, said Polymarket’s website would be blocked in France, adding to a ban introduced in November 2024 on financial transactions to the platform. Polymarket is among a number of online prediction market services that let users bet on the outcome of future events.
According to the regulator, the platform’s continued online availability in France amounted to advertising because its betting odds on different events were updated in real time. The ANJ said promoting an unauthorised gambling or betting site was a criminal offence and warned penalties could be as high as 100,000 euros, or about $114,000.
The authority said that even after the ban on transactions from French accounts, traffic from French internet addresses to Polymarket continued to rise. It said visits reached 578,751 last month.
Security and integrity concerns
The regulator also pointed to problems linked to prediction markets. In April, France’s weather agency Meteo-France lodged a complaint after one of its weather probes was hacked in a bid to manipulate bets on Polymarket.
In the United States, a soldier is facing federal charges over allegations that he used classified information to place bets on online prediction markets connected to the January operation to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. He is alleged to have made more than $400,000.
The White House said on Thursday that a teleprompter operator had been suspended over allegations that he placed bets through a prediction market on the content of US President Donald Trump’s speeches.
Wider European restrictions
According to the ANJ, France is among several European countries that restrict or block access to online prediction markets, alongside Germany, Italy and Spain. France, however, permits online sports betting.
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