Polymarket, the world’s largest decentralized betting platform, has gone dark for users in India. The website says: “This site cannot be reached. Check for a typo in polymarket.com.”
Refreshing the page does not fix the connection problem.
The suspension follows an April 25 announcement by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) targeting VPN service providers. The advisory warned that local users continued to access “illegal and blocked prediction markets and online betting platforms” despite “domestic bans.”
Under the directive, ISPs were required to end access to prediction markets, with Polymarket among the primary targets.
While Kalshi, a platform regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is currently still available, it may soon face a similar fate. Local media reports, citing an anonymous source within MeitY, claim that the agency “has already issued a blocking order to Polymarket and is in the process of issuing an order to Kalshi as soon as Friday.”
CoinDesk contacted Polymarket and Kalshi for comment.
Prediction markets allow users to bet real money on the outcome of binary events such as referendums, price movements of financial assets and election results. These platforms saw a massive surge in global popularity during the 2024 US presidential election, becoming a primary venue for investors to hedge or bet on political outcomes.
However, the Indian government classifies the activity on these platforms as online gambling. As a result, they fall under a category that is completely prohibited under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025.
The Indian government has maintained a consistent “risk-averse” and prohibitive stance towards the cryptocurrency sector, prioritizing financial stability and capital controls over industry growth. New Delhi has used a “shadow ban” strategy through punitive taxation, including a 30% flat tax on gains and a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on all transactions, effectively curbing domestic trade volumes.
The Ministry of Finance has focused on bringing the sector under strict Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Strike Financing (CFT) supervision via the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). This regulatory environment has pushed many local crypto startups to move to friendlier jurisdictions such as Dubai or Singapore, as the government and the Reserve Bank of India continue to signal that they see private cryptocurrencies more as speculative “money games” than legitimate financial innovation.
India’s parliamentary standing committee on finance met with crypto exchanges Binance, WazirX and Zebpay in Delhi on May 20 to discuss regulations and taxation for what it calls a virtual digital asset (VDA) industry.
The committee expressed concern over massive outflows from the country via the crypto channel.
