The Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), France's gambling authority, has mandated that internet service providers block access to Polymarket. The regulator has classified Polymarket as an illegal gambling site rather than a trading platform. This decision comes after Polymarket allowed access to French citizens, circumventing a ban on financial transactions enacted in November 2024. ANJ reported 578,751 visits to Polymarket in June 2026 from over 205,000 unique users in France, despite existing restrictions.
The French authority contends that facilitating Polymarket's homepage, which provides data on live gambling platforms, violates legislation against unauthorized gambling. Furthermore, the ANJ referenced an ongoing cybercrime investigation initiated by Météo-France, which is examining suspicious activities relating to temperature sensors tied to weather-based prediction markets.
In February 2026, France classified prediction markets as illegal gambling. The move to block Polymarket contributes to an expanding list of jurisdictions that have restricted the platform. Currently, Polymarket is facing regulatory scrutiny in more than 30 countries, including Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina, India, and Indonesia, in response to increasing regulatory oversight of prediction markets.
