France orders ISPs to block Polymarket after geofence breach

On July 17, 2026 France’s gambling regulator ordered internet service providers to block access to the crypto prediction-market site Polymarket after traffic data showed 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique French visitors to the site in June 2026, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ) reported.

The ANJ said the order follows a case opened in 2024. Regulators first contacted Adventure One QSS Inc., a Panamanian company identified as Polymarket’s operator, in November 2024 after assessing that the platform’s services could qualify as unauthorized gambling under French law.

An operator-installed geoblock had been intended to stop transactions from France. The regulator reported that the geoblock largely blocked financial transactions but that French users could still view the site homepage, which displayed live, dynamically updated odds, and that workarounds allowed continued access.

Polymarket’s public documentation lists France as “close-only” on its front end and API, a setting that permits users to close existing positions but not open new ones. The platform runs IP eligibility checks on polymarket.com.

Polymarket describes its trading system as a hybrid model: orders are matched off-chain and matched trades settle through an exchange contract on the Polygon blockchain. The ANJ’s order targets access to polymarket.com and the service interface rather than the Polygon settlement contracts, and the notice does not indicate that those contracts were disabled.

Under Article 61 of French law, after statutory notice and response periods the ANJ can require access providers to block specified online interfaces and ask search engines and directories to stop referencing them. The regulator reported using that power to block 1,290 URLs linked to illegal gambling in 2025.

In policy statements and a 2024 notice, the regulator classified prediction markets as unauthorized gambling in France. The ANJ’s February 2026 policy statement cited risks including addiction, integrity concerns and gaps in identity and age verification.

The ANJ listed 12 European jurisdictions that have restricted or blocked prediction markets: Germany, Belgium, Romania, Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

Spain’s gambling authority ordered the Polymarket and Kalshi websites blocked on May 26, 2026 as an interim measure while it pursued proceedings over possible unlicensed gambling operations, citing licensing, identity verification, protections for minors and self-exclusion tools.

The ANJ framed the July 17 order as a follow-up measure to close the operator-controlled front end and discovery channels that gave the site a large French audience, according to the regulator’s notice.