The Czech Republic has added Polymarket to its list of illegal gambling, requiring ISPs to cut off internet access within 15 days.

BlockBeats message, July 15: the Czech Republic has become the latest European country to block Polymarket on the grounds of “unlicensed gambling.” On July 13, the Czech Ministry of Finance added the platform to the “list of unauthorized online games”; local internet service providers must cut off access to the platform within 15 days.

Jan Řehola, head of the Czech gambling regulator, said that under legal gambling, the state clearly knows who is operating, who is participating, and which bets are suspicious; while prediction markets may look different in form, their essence is that they allow bets on almost any events—from weather and political decisions to even security actions—yet they lack corresponding regulation.

The Czech regulator said that in recent months, several EU countries have already restricted or blocked the platform, and pressure has increased further this month—Italy has re-listed Polymarket on its blocking list, and the Netherlands has also rejected the platform’s appeal. This month, ESMA, the EU’s securities regulator, also warned that event contracts that meet the definition of financial instruments are subject to existing binary options rules, and are prohibited from being sold to retail investors.

Meanwhile, some jurisdictions have gone in the opposite direction: Gibraltar this week rolled out the world’s first regulatory framework specifically for prediction markets, separating the industry from general gambling laws and allowing it to operate under licenses; Malta has also said it is exploring a similar system.