France’s gambling regulator has ordered internet service providers to block Polymarket, escalating a long-running standoff with the crypto-based prediction market after concluding that its earlier voluntary geoblock was being routinely bypassed by French users.
The Autorite Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) said on July 17, 2026 that its president had directed French internet service providers the previous day to cut off access to Polymarket, according to the regulator’s official notice. The action targets market access inside France rather than a global shutdown of the platform. For related coverage, see Polymarket to Launch Parlay Contracts: What the New Product Could Mean.
Polymarket is a prediction market where users trade on the outcome of real-world events, from elections to weather, with positions settled on the Polygon blockchain. The ANJ said the platform promotes an illegal gambling and betting offering in France. For related coverage, see Polymarket Corporate Structure Mystery Stumps Former Employees.
Why France Escalated From a Geoblock Request to a Hard ISP Block
The order did not come out of nowhere. The ANJ said Polymarket implemented a French geoblock after a first notice in 2024, but that the measure was being circumvented in practice, prompting the regulator to move to administrative ISP-level blocking.
Central to that decision was audience data. The ANJ said Polymarket drew 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique visitors from France in June 2026, evidence that the platform’s reach was growing despite the existing restriction.
The regulator also cited an integrity concern. It said a Paris cybercrime investigation was opened on May 4, 2026 after weather-bet concerns suggested that meteorological probes tied to some markets could have been hacked, a claim it described as an apparent issue with no public conclusion cited.
How the Order Fits France’s Broader Prediction-Market Stance
France’s regulatory framework treats prediction markets much like licensed betting products, meaning offshore platforms serving French users can fall foul of national gambling law regardless of their crypto architecture. The ANJ had already said on February 25, 2026 that prediction-market platforms are illegal in France and that major operators had geoblocked French access at its request.
The Polymarket block also sits within a wider enforcement pattern. The ANJ said it used the same blocking power against 1,290 illegal URLs in 2025, framing the latest order as part of routine enforcement rather than a one-off.
The company behind Polymarket, Adventure One QSS Inc., faces a restriction with no fixed end date. Reuters reported that the block will remain in place as long as French regulators deem Polymarket noncompliant, and that Polymarket did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
What the Block Signals for Crypto Prediction Platforms in Europe
France is not acting alone. Spanish authorities recently blocked Kalshi and Polymarket over gambling-law violations, and the ANJ noted that several European countries have already restricted or blocked prediction markets, suggesting other national regulators may test similar enforcement tools against offshore operators.
For Polymarket, the immediate cost is reach. Losing access for a market that logged more than half a million French visits in a single month cuts liquidity and participation, and repeated blocking orders across jurisdictions can erode brand trust even where the platform remains reachable, such as during high-volume events like the World Cup final betting surge on Kalshi and Polymarket.
The dispute also lands amid heightened French scrutiny of crypto more broadly, a market where the country has already drawn attention for a disproportionate share of physical crypto-extortion incidents. Regulatory and security pressures are converging on the same jurisdiction.
Industry commentary has centered on data integrity rather than trading mechanics. Writing on the weather-market controversy that intensified France’s concern, analyst Ruben Hallali argued that settlement data, not trading, is the weak point for prediction markets.
“the real bottleneck is not trading itself, but the integrity and certification of the data used for settlement” Ruben Hallali
The market backdrop is cautious. POL, the Polygon ecosystem token that underpins Polymarket’s settlement layer, traded at $0.08133, down 3.8% over 24 hours for a market capitalization near $868 million, while the broader Fear & Greed Index sat at 25, or “Extreme Fear.”
Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported that Polymarket’s annualised revenue has surpassed $1 billion, a figure that remains unconfirmed. Whether hard blocking meaningfully dents that trajectory will depend on how many jurisdictions follow France’s lead, and how effectively users route around ISP-level restrictions that voluntary geoblocks failed to enforce.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.
