France Bans Prediction Market Polymarket! Fully Blocks the Domain, With Illegal Promotion Fined Up to €100,000

According to a report by The Straits Times, on July 17, the French National Gambling Regulatory Authority (ANJ) announced a complete block on Polymarket’s website access for online prediction markets. Although France had already banned financial transactions on the platform, due to continued soaring visit volume and ongoing disputes involving manipulation and insider trading, the authorities decided to take a hardline approach, with violations carrying fines of up to €100k.
(Background: Polymarket applied for U.S. margin trading, igniting a war of leveraged contract trading in the prediction market)
(Additional context: Polymarket’s “Chinese military forces attack Taiwan” probability before 2027 once surged as high as 14%, and has since fallen to 9%)

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• No end to bans! France’s ANJ orders a comprehensive domain blockade
• Hacking and insider trading fuel controversy in the prediction market
• Europe tightens regulation, leaving Polymarket in a difficult spot

As the influence of decentralized prediction markets continues to grow, regulators’ hardline measures from governments around the world are also arriving. On July 17, 2026, Taipei time, according to The Straits Times, the French government officially announced a blockade of the popular prediction market platform Polymarket’s website access within France, cutting off people’s illegal betting channels entirely.

No end to bans! France’s ANJ orders a comprehensive domain blockade

The French National Gambling Regulatory Authority (ANJ) said that although, starting from November 2024, it had already issued a ban prohibiting French accounts from conducting financial transactions with Polymarket, the impact has been minimal. Data shows that in June 2026 alone, visits from French IPs still reached 578k times, and the trend continues upward.

ANJ emphasized that Polymarket continues to provide real-time betting odds on its website, which under French law is equivalent to illegal advertising. For this reason, the authorities decided to further directly block access to the website. The authorities also issued a stern warning that any act of promoting unauthorized betting or gambling websites constitutes a criminal offense, with penalties up to €100k at most.

Hacking and insider trading fuel controversy in the prediction market

Polymarket, a platform that lets users bet on the outcomes of future events such as elections, sports, and even weather, is seen as a display of “wisdom of the crowd,” but it also brings serious security and ethical risks.

The report lists multiple recent controversy cases. In France, Meteo-France this April accused its weather sensors of being hacked, with the purpose of manipulating weather-related bets on Polymarket. In the United States, the situation is similarly severe: not only was a U.S. military soldier federally indicted for profiting more than $400k by using confidential information to bet on actions to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro; on July 16, the White House also fired a teleprompter operator over allegations that he used his position to place bets on the content of remarks by President Donald Trump on the prediction market.

Europe tightens regulation, leaving Polymarket in a difficult spot

In fact, France is not the only European country taking a hardline stance toward prediction markets. The report says that multiple European countries, including Germany, Italy, and Spain, have already imposed restrictions or blockades on prediction markets of this type. Although France itself allows legal online sports betting, for unauthorized prediction market platforms—those that are prone to manipulation and raise national security concerns—the authorities evidently have decided to adopt the strictest regulatory measures to plug loopholes.