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The ANJ’s attention has been drawn to the services offered by the company, which are to be regarded as an unauthorised gambling offer
The President of France’s National Gaming Authority (ANJ) has ordered French Internet service providers to block access to Polymarket’s prediction site, which it says ‘promotes an illegal offer of gambling.’
The ANJ said: “Since November 2024, the ANJ’s attention has been drawn to the services offered by the company, which are to be regarded as an unauthorised gambling offer. Following an initial formal notice from the ANJ, the company has set up a geo-blocking system preventing any financial transaction on the game offers offered by the company from French territory, but giving rise in practice to circumventions.”
In February 2026, the National Gaming Authority highlighted that prediction sites are not authorised in France and that they are considered illegal gambling sites and therefore expose their users to many risks (addiction, integrity, etc.) in the absence of regulation.
The ANJ said: “Some bets offered on this platform appeared to be distorted: for example, bets on the weather revealed that weather probes could have been hacked. An investigation was opened on this point on May 4, 2026, by the cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor’s office, entrusted to the OFAC (Anti-Cybercrime Office). This case revealed the absence, on the Polymarket platforms available to the French and European public, of a user identification system to ensure their probity (known as KYC, Know Your Customer).
“For the past two years, the platform has continued to gain visitors in France, with, last June, 578,751 visits, and 205,057 unique visitors. The site’s home page, which displays in real time and in a dynamic manner the odds associated with the various events likely to be the subject of bets, is thus a major vector for the dissemination and promotion of the offers of the Polymarket site, whose activity is not authorized on French territory. Advertising, by any means, in favor of an unauthorized betting or gambling site is a criminal offense. Anyone who advertises such an offer can be punished with a fine of €100,000. The same penalty shall also be incurred by anyone who, by any means whatsoever, has disseminated to the public, for the purpose of promoting unauthorised online gaming sites, the odds and reports offered by these unauthorised sites.”
It added: “Under these conditions, the ANJ has implemented the administrative blocking power of this site, as it has done for other illegal sites since it has had this power, with 1,290 URLs blocked in 2025.
“Prediction markets are attracting increasing interest from regulators. The hybrid nature of these markets may explain the varied approaches of regulators around the world. In Europe, several countries have already restricted or blocked prediction markets: Germany, Belgium, Romania, Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic.”
