France’s gambling regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), ordered ISPs to block Polymarket on July 16, treating the prediction market as an illegal gambling venue rather than a financial trading venue.
ANJ said previous restrictions had failed to keep French users off the platform. Polymarket drew 578,751 visits from 205,057 unique visitors in France in June, according to Similarweb data cited by the regulator, despite a ban on financial transactions since November 2024. A VPN was enough to bypass it.
The website remained accessible for users to view live markets and odds. ANJ said the real-time odds display promoted an unauthorized gambling service.
“Thus, the site’s website, which dynamically displays real-time odds for various events open for betting, acts as an important channel to communicate and promote Polymarket’s offers, even though the site’s operation is not authorized in France,” the regulator wrote. The fines can reach 100,000 euros ($114,380).
Polymarket did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoinDesk.
The ANJ also cited a complaint by France’s weather service, Météo-France, about a tampered temperature sensor linked to weather-based betting, prompting the cybercrime prosecutor’s office in Paris to open an investigation on May 4.
