France blocks access to Polymarket website

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

PARIS, July 17 (Reuters) - France has blocked access to the Polymarket betting website, the country's gambling regulator said on Friday, citing concerns it could expose users to significant gambling losses and that some wagers offered on the platform could be manipulated.

"On July 16, 2026, the president of France's National Gambling Authority ordered French internet service providers to block access to the Polymarket website. The site, which attracts a particularly large audience, is promoting an illegal gambling and betting offering," the regulator said on its website.

A spokesperson for the regulator said the Polymarket website would remain blocked in France for as long as regulators deemed it noncompliant with the country's rules for the gambling industry.

Polymarket officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Regulators have increasingly sought to tighten their oversight of prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket, which have surged in popularity.

In May, the Spanish government temporarily banned Polymarket and Kalshi from operating in the country, while in June, the top U.S. derivatives regulator released new draft regulations for the prediction markets industry.

Polymarket and Kalshi allow traders and gamblers to bet on a wide array of events, ranging from the results of sports matches to elections and even on events related to the wars in Iran and Ukraine.

Lawmakers have called for tougher regulation and for some bets to be banned on the basis that they serve no economic purpose and may be harmful to the public interest.

The French regulator said in its statement that people had been placing wagers on what the weather would be like, and that insider information may have been used for these bets.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters last month that Polymarket's annualised revenue has surpassed $1 billion.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Louise Heavens, Rod Nickel)