France’s gambling regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANZ), ordered Internet service providers to block Polymarket on July 16, deeming the prediction market an illegal gambling venue rather than a financial trading venue.
ANZ said earlier restrictions had failed to keep French users off the platform. Polymarket received 578,751 visits from 205,057 unique visitors in France in June, according to SimilarWeb data cited by the regulator, despite a ban on financial transactions from November 2024. A VPN was enough to bypass it.
The homepage remained accessible, allowing users to view live markets and odds. ANZ said the real-time odds display promoted an unauthorized gambling service.
“The site’s homepage, which dynamically displays real-time odds for various events open for betting, thus serves as a key channel to disseminate and promote Polymarket’s offers, even though the site’s operation is not authorized in France,” the regulator wrote. Fines could reach up to 100,000 euros ($114,380).
Polymarket did not immediately respond to comment from CoinDesk.
ANJ also cited a complaint by Météo-France, France’s weather service, that temperature sensors linked to weather-based bets were tampered with, prompting the Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit to launch an investigation on May 4.