France Blocks Polymarket Over Illegal Gambling Concerns

France's gambling regulator, the Autorite Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), ordered French internet service providers on July 16, 2026 to block access to Polymarket, ruling that the prediction market platform operates as an unlicensed gambling site. The order followed a two year investigation that found no age or identity checks on French bettors and evidence that weather linked prediction markets had been manipulated through compromised weather sensor data.

• ANJ recorded 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique French visitors to Polymarket in June 2026 alone, according to the regulator's own traffic data.
• ANJ blocked 1,290 gambling related URLs across France in 2025, and Polymarket is now one of the highest profile additions to that list in 2026.
• Promoting unlicensed gambling odds in France carries fines of up to 100,000 euros, the legal basis ANJ cited for the order.

Why did France's ANJ block Polymarket?

ANJ blocked Polymarket because it concluded the platform was running an illegal gambling offer disguised as a financial prediction market. In its July 17 communique, the regulator said the site displayed real time betting style odds to the public, a form of promotion reserved for licensed operators under French law, while offering none of the identity verification or player protection tools that licensed French bookmakers must provide.

What exactly did the ANJ order?

ANJ directed French internet service providers to block the domain polymarket.com at the network level, the same administrative blocking power the regulator has used against 1,290 other unlicensed gambling URLs since the start of 2025. Unlike a fine or a warning letter, an ISP blocking order is one of ANJ's most severe enforcement tools and is typically reserved for operators that have ignored earlier notices, which Polymarket had received as far back as November 2024.

How many French users were affected?

ANJ's own traffic figures put French usage in the hundreds of thousands. The regulator said Polymarket logged 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique visitors from France in June 2026, a scale ANJ said justified treating the platform as a mainstream, and therefore reportable, gambling risk rather than a niche financial curiosity.

What triggered the Paris cybercrime investigation?

The probe began after suspicions that Polymarket's weather linked markets, contracts that let users bet on future temperature or rainfall readings, had been rigged. Paris prosecutors' cybercrime unit opened a formal investigation on May 4, 2026 after ANJ flagged that certain weather sensors feeding the markets may have been tampered with. ANJ's communique put it directly: "Certains paris proposes sur cette plateforme apparaissaient fausses," or some of the bets offered on the platform appeared to be rigged, specifically citing bets on the weather where sensor data may have been hacked.

Is this France's first action against Polymarket?

No, the July block is the culmination of an escalating, two year process rather than a sudden move. ANJ first put the platform's parent company, Adventure One, on notice in November 2024, then imposed restrictions on financial transactions to the site, a step users largely circumvented using VPNs. In February 2026, ANJ went further and formally classified all prediction market platforms as unlicensed gambling offers under French law, setting up the ISP blocking order that followed in July.

Date	ANJ action against Polymarket
November 2024	ANJ issues first formal notice to Polymarket operator Adventure One
Late 2024	ANJ restricts financial transactions to Polymarket, later bypassed by users via VPNs
February 2026	ANJ formally classifies prediction markets as unlicensed gambling offers
May 4, 2026	Paris prosecutors' cybercrime unit opens investigation into suspected rigged weather bets
July 16, 2026	ANJ orders French ISPs to block polymarket.com outright

What penalties can ANJ impose on unlicensed operators?

ANJ can fine operators up to 100,000 euros, about 114,000 US dollars, for advertising or promoting unauthorized gambling odds in France, the specific provision the regulator cited alongside the blocking order. That figure applies per instance of illegal promotion and sits on top of the network level block, which is designed to cut off new French traffic regardless of any fine.

Which other countries restrict Polymarket?

France is not acting alone. According to PYMNTS, several European regulators, including those in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland, have already restricted access to Polymarket on similar unlicensed gambling grounds. That gives France one of the largest and most detailed public enforcement files of any single regulator to date, with a documented investigation timeline, named traffic figures and a specific fraud allegation rather than a blanket restriction.

How does this compare with prediction market regulation in the US?

The US has taken a more fragmented approach than France's outright ISP block. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission asserts exclusive federal jurisdiction over event contracts, including sports linked prediction markets, while individual states have pushed back through their own gambling laws. Arizona has gone furthest, filing criminal charges against rival platform Kalshi over what state officials describe as an illegal gambling operation, with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes arguing the platform "may brand itself as a prediction market, but what it's actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation." That state versus federal jurisdictional fight is the US equivalent of the question ANJ has now answered unilaterally in France.

Can French users still reach Polymarket through a VPN?

Technically yes, but ANJ's own history with Polymarket shows why that is not a real workaround. The regulator's 2024 restriction on financial transactions to the platform was largely defeated by users routing around it with VPNs, which is part of why ANJ escalated to a full domain level ISP block rather than relying on payment restrictions again. Accessing a blocked site via VPN does not restore any of the consumer protections, such as identity checks, deposit limits or dispute resolution, that a French license would otherwise require.

What does this mean for the wider prediction markets industry?

The Polymarket block sharpens a divide that is already visible across the prediction markets sector: some jurisdictions are moving to regulate and license this activity, while others are moving to ban it outright. Gibraltar took the opposite path earlier this year with Gibraltar's dedicated prediction markets regime, choosing to bring the sector inside a licensed framework rather than block it. In the US, platforms are also drawing scrutiny well beyond gambling regulators, illustrated by Google's decision to ban prediction market ads in Michigan and New York and by the Kalshi teleprompter betting scandal, which put the CFTC's oversight of these platforms under a different kind of pressure.

How are licensed operators positioned against unregulated prediction markets?

Licensed sportsbooks have leaned into the contrast rather than away from it. Traditional operators point to episodes like the Polymarket weather manipulation allegation as evidence that licensed, audited markets carry protections that unregulated prediction platforms do not. That argument sits behind Underdog's own CFTC registered prediction market exchange, which seeks the regulatory legitimacy Polymarket now lacks in France, and behind Michael Burry's bet against prediction markets, a wager that stricter enforcement of platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi will ultimately benefit regulated sportsbooks such as DraftKings and Flutter's FanDuel.

What happens next for Polymarket in France?

Polymarket has not published a substantive public response to the ANJ order, and the company has not obtained a French gambling license, which would be the only route back to legal access under current law. Barring a legal challenge or a shift in ANJ's position, French users will need to rely on VPNs to reach the platform, an option that carries no regulatory protection and that ANJ has already shown it is willing to escalate against.

Comparison: how European regulators are treating prediction markets

Jurisdiction	Regulator	Stance on Polymarket or prediction markets
France	ANJ	ISP blocking order issued July 16, 2026 after a two year investigation
Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland	National gambling regulators	Access already restricted, per PYMNTS reporting
Gibraltar	Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner	Built a dedicated licensing regime rather than blocking the sector
United States	CFTC and state regulators including Arizona	Unresolved federal versus state jurisdictional dispute, with Arizona pursuing criminal charges against Kalshi

"Certains paris proposes sur cette plateforme apparaissaient fausses." (Some of the bets offered on this platform appeared to be rigged.) - Autorite Nationale des Jeux, official communique, July 17, 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Polymarket illegal in France?

Yes. ANJ has classified Polymarket as an unlicensed gambling operator and ordered internet service providers to block the site as of July 16, 2026.

Why did France block Polymarket?

ANJ said Polymarket offered gambling style odds without age or identity checks, and a Paris cybercrime investigation found evidence that some weather related bets had been manipulated through hacked weather sensors.

What is the ANJ?

The Autorite Nationale des Jeux is France's national gambling regulator. It licenses betting, casino and lottery operators and can order internet providers to block unlicensed gambling sites.

How many French users did Polymarket have?

ANJ said Polymarket recorded 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique French visitors in June 2026 alone.

Can French users still reach Polymarket through a VPN?

Technically yes. ANJ's earlier 2024 restriction on financial transactions to Polymarket was undermined the same way, but bypassing the block offers users none of the protections of a licensed market.

Which other countries restrict Polymarket?

According to PYMNTS reporting, several European regulators, including those in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland, have already restricted access to Polymarket.

What penalty can ANJ impose for promoting unlicensed gambling?

French law allows fines of up to 100,000 euros for promoting unauthorized gambling odds, the basis ANJ cited in its Polymarket order.

Does the Polymarket block affect licensed sportsbooks and casinos in France?

No. The order targets Polymarket specifically as an unlicensed operator. ANJ licensed sports betting and casino operators are unaffected and continue operating under existing French gambling law.

Updated July 2026. Sources: Autorite Nationale des Jeux, PYMNTS and iGaming Business.