--- title: "France Orders Internet Providers to Block the Crypto Market Polymarket" description: "France's gambling regulator has told internet providers to block Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction market, arguing it offers unlicensed gambling to French users. It is an escalation from an earlier ban on payments to the site, which failed to stop French traffic, and part of a wider regulatory squeeze on prediction markets across Europe and Asia." category: "Crypto" category_url: https://boursel.com/category/crypto author: "Daniel Okonkwo" published: 2026-07-18T10:33:00.000Z updated: 2026-07-18T10:33:00.000Z canonical: https://boursel.com/article/france-orders-internet-providers-to-block-the-crypto-market-polymarket tags: ["polymarket", "prediction-markets", "france", "regulation", "crypto"] --- # France Orders Internet Providers to Block the Crypto Market Polymarket France's gambling regulator has told internet providers to block Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction market, arguing it offers unlicensed gambling to French users. It is an escalation from an earlier ban on payments to the site, which failed to stop French traffic, and part of a wider regulatory squeeze on prediction markets across Europe and Asia. France has moved to pull the plug on one of the best-known crypto betting platforms. The head of the country's gambling regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), [ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket, in an order issued on July 16 and announced at the end of the week, according to France 24](https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260717-france-orders-internet-service-providers-to-block-access-to-polymarket). The regulator says the platform offers gambling that is not authorized under French law. ## What Polymarket is Polymarket is a **prediction market**: a platform where people bet on the outcome of future events, from elections to sports results to economic data, by buying and selling contracts that pay out if a given outcome happens. The price of a contract moves with the crowd's collective view of how likely the event is, so the odds double as a real-time forecast. It runs on cryptocurrency, with bets denominated in **USDC**, a "stablecoin" designed to hold a steady value of one US dollar. Unlike a regulated exchange or a licensed bookmaker, Polymarket has operated with little oversight in most countries. That ambiguity, is it a financial market or a betting shop?, is exactly what regulators are now forcing to a head. France has come down firmly on the side of "betting." ## Why France acted, and how The ANJ's case is that Polymarket amounts to unlicensed online gambling, offered without the licenses and consumer protections French law requires, and that it exposes users to potential losses and to wagers that could be manipulated. The regulator also argued that because the platform displays live betting odds, its continued accessibility in France effectively functions as advertising for illegal gambling. The blocking order is a step up from earlier, softer enforcement. [In November 2024 the ANJ moved against Polymarket after scrutiny of a French trader who had placed very large bets on the US presidential election, and financial transactions from French accounts to the platform were restricted, as France 24 notes](https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260717-france-orders-internet-service-providers-to-block-access-to-polymarket). That payment ban did not stop people using the site: the regulator says visits from French internet addresses still ran into the hundreds of thousands in a single recent month. Ordering ISPs to block the site works at the level of the network itself, preventing customers from reaching it, the same technique some governments use against piracy sites. It is blunter, though not foolproof: determined users can often get around such blocks with tools like VPNs, which disguise their location. ## The wider squeeze France is not acting alone, and that is the part global readers should note. [Cointelegraph reported the regulator's action against the platform as part of a broader pattern](https://cointelegraph.com/news/french-gambling-authority-blocks-polymarket), and the ANJ itself pointed to other jurisdictions tightening the screws: several European countries restrict or block prediction markets, and authorities in parts of Asia have gone further, with Singapore and Taiwan ordering network-level blocks and Taiwan making arrests tied to election betting. The through-line is a regulatory reckoning over what prediction markets actually are. In the United States, they have been treated more permissively and have grown quickly; across much of Europe and Asia, regulators increasingly classify them as gambling and move to shut off access. For the crypto industry, which has championed prediction markets as a legitimate new financial tool, France's block is a reminder that the label a regulator chooses, market or casino, determines whether a platform is allowed to operate at all. Boursel does not give investment advice; the point is that the legal status of this fast-growing corner of crypto is being decided right now, country by country. ## Sources - [France orders internet providers to block access to Polymarket prediction site](https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260717-france-orders-internet-service-providers-to-block-access-to-polymarket) - [French gambling authority blocks Polymarket](https://cointelegraph.com/news/french-gambling-authority-blocks-polymarket)