France Takes Bold Action, Blocks Polymarket Amid 578K Surge

ANJ Orders ISPs to Cut Access to Polymarket Nationwide

France's national gambling regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), ordered the country's internet service providers on Thursday, July 16, 2026, to fully block access to prediction market platform Polymarket, treating it as an illegal gambling site rather than a financial trading venue. The order, announced from Paris, follows a November 2024 ban on financial transactions to the platform that failed to curb usage, with French traffic instead climbing to 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique visitors in June alone, according to Similarweb data cited by the regulator.

Prediction Market Crackdown Expands Across France's Regulators

The ANJ cited addictive mechanics, an absence of self-exclusion tools, and users bypassing prior restrictions via VPNs as key reasons for escalating to infrastructure-level blocking. Regulators also flagged Polymarket's real-time odds display as a form of unauthorized gambling advertising, warning of fines up to €100,000 for violations. The move follows a Meteo-France complaint over allegedly hacked weather sensors used in prediction markets and a Paris prosecutor's investigation into the platform's lack of identity verification. France joins Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic, with Polymarket now restricted in more than 30 countries.

The block adds pressure on Polymarket to strengthen compliance tools such as self-exclusion and identity verification if it hopes to maintain access across European markets.

As more regulators classify prediction markets as gambling rather than financial products, platforms may face growing pressure to adopt jurisdiction-specific licensing or risk widening bans across the EU.

ANJ officials said the platform will remain blocked for as long as it is considered non-compliant with French gambling law, signaling the restriction is intended as a lasting measure rather than a temporary warning.