Source: Blockhead
Compiled by: Saoirse, Foresight News
France's National Gaming Authority (ANJ) has now ordered all domestic internet service providers to block access to Polymarket. This is a prediction trading platform that allows users to use cryptocurrency to bet on the outcomes of real-world events.
This official ban was formally issued by France's National Gaming Authority on July 16th, escalating a four-year regulatory battle with unprecedentedly tough enforcement measures. The core rationale for this control focuses primarily on the harm the platform causes to ordinary users, rather than risks to financial market order.
This classification is crucial: the regulatory body did not categorize Polymarket as an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange but instead directly identified it as an illegal gambling operation, grouping it in the same regulatory category as unlicensed online casinos and sports betting platforms. The two classifications correspond to vastly different legal constraints and enforcement measures, which will profoundly influence the regulatory approaches of authorities in other European countries.
The Data Behind the Regulatory Escalation
France previously issued regulations in November 2024 prohibiting users within its territory from transacting funds with Polymarket, but this measure proved largely ineffective. The French National Gaming Authority cited data from traffic analysis platform Similarweb showing that in June 2026 alone, the platform had 205,057 unique visitors from France, with total visits reaching 578,751. Users could easily bypass the fund transfer restrictions simply by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The Authority concluded that only directly blocking the website's domain name could achieve effective control.
The regulator also listed two lines of investigation into violations: France's meteorological service, Météo-France, filed a complaint alleging that someone tampered with temperature sensor data to manipulate weather-related prediction contracts on Polymarket; the Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit has opened a formal investigation into this on May 4th. In addition, regulators are closely monitoring a French trader with the account name 'Fredi9999', who allegedly manipulated odds for bets related to the 2024 US presidential election by holding large positions, and is now under investigation by French authorities.
As early as February 2026, France's National Gaming Authority had already reclassified such prediction markets as illegal gambling. The rationale was that these platforms lacked the mandatory risk protection mechanisms required for legal gambling institutions in France: betting limits and user self-exclusion pathways, thus failing to ensure consumer safety.
What This Means for the Entire Industry
France is not alone in restricting Polymarket; currently, over 30 countries and regions worldwide have implemented controls on the platform: Switzerland was the first to block the website in November 2024; Poland, Singapore, and Belgium followed with restrictions in early 2025; Portugal introduced control measures in January 2026; Spain issued a temporary blocking order and launched a simultaneous investigation in May of the same year. Brazil, Argentina, India, Indonesia, as well as Italy, Germany, Romania, Hungary, and Ukraine have all introduced related restrictive policies.
But France is the largest economy in the EU and the first member state to mandate a nationwide uniform website block by all operators. Official documents repeatedly mention the platform's addictive nature and harm to consumers, using phrasing identical to that employed when regulating loot boxes and other grey-area gambling products.
The more profound impact of this event lies in whether this regulatory standard will be implemented across the entire EU. France's classification of prediction markets under gambling, rather than as financial instruments or information services, creates a clear conflict with the EU's current regulatory framework under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). If other EU member states follow France's judgment logic, crypto prediction markets could face a uniform ban across the EU under gambling laws, rather than being regulated compliantly under financial market regulations. This runs counter to the long-term compliant development path laid out by the US-regulated prediction platform Kalshi.
Kalshi is a compliant prediction market regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), currently expanding its US institutional business and had previously planned to enter the European market. If the EU uniformly classifies such platforms as gambling ventures, its European expansion plans would face significant obstacles — not necessarily that European users would be completely unable to access it, but the platform's regulatory positioning and brand image would become fundamentally misaligned with its US domestic operations.
At this stage, France serves as a test case for EU regulation. If the operator blocking measures significantly reduce domestic traffic, and if the meteorological data tampering case results in a successful prosecution, other EU regulators will closely reference this case when formulating their own control plans.
