Polymarket has announced a French court challenge five days after regulators ordered internet providers to block the platform over gambling-loss and market-manipulation concerns.
Summary
- Polymarket will challenge France’s decision to block its website through the country’s courts.
- French regulators cited gambling losses, contract manipulation and suspected use of insider information.
- U.S. authorities are separately examining sports contracts, customer protection and prediction-market integrity.
Reuters reported on July 22 that the crypto-based prediction market intends to contest the National Gambling Authority’s decision through France’s legal system.
“We are disappointed by the French gaming authority’s (ANJ’s) sudden decision to unilaterally block our website — we intend to challenge this decision through the legal process in France,” Polymarket stated.
ANJ President Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin issued the order on July 16, directing French internet service providers to restrict access to Polymarket. According to ANJ’s statement cited by Reuters, the website attracted a large French audience while offering gambling and betting services that the regulator considers illegal under national law.
A spokesperson for ANJ told Reuters that the block would remain until the regulator considers Polymarket compliant with France’s gambling rules. Polymarket’s planned case will now test whether the authority can continue restricting the website under its current classification of the platform.
Unlike conventional sportsbooks, Polymarket lets users trade contracts tied to outcomes in politics, economics, sports, weather and armed conflicts. Traders buy positions representing possible results, with contract prices changing as market expectations move.
French regulator focuses on losses and manipulation
ANJ linked its intervention to the amount users could lose and the design of certain contracts available through Polymarket. The regulator warned that some of those markets could be manipulated and expose customers to substantial gambling losses.
Weather contracts received particular attention in ANJ’s statement. The regulator reported that users had wagered on weather outcomes and raised suspicions that some participants might have traded with inside information.
Polymarket did not provide details about its legal arguments or state when it would file the challenge. Its statement only confirmed that it would use the French legal process to oppose the restriction.
While ANJ targeted Polymarket in its July order, French authorities did not announce an equivalent block against rival platform Kalshi in the same statement. Spain took a different approach in May when its government temporarily prohibited both companies from operating, crypto.news reported.
The French action has arrived as prediction platforms handle increasingly large sums. A person familiar with Polymarket’s finances told Reuters in June that the company’s annualized revenue had exceeded $1 billion.
Trading across the sector has also climbed around major sporting events. Dune Analytics data cited by Reuters showed that users wagered about $19.04 billion through Polymarket and Kalshi during the recently completed soccer World Cup.
Those figures have increased the stakes in disputes over whether event contracts should be treated as financial instruments, gambling products or a separate class requiring its own rules. French authorities have applied gambling law to Polymarket, while regulatory arguments in the United States remain divided between federal derivatives oversight and state betting laws.
U.S. scrutiny targets sports markets and informed trading
Across the Atlantic, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee has examined customer protection and market integrity in sports prediction markets. Its Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Subcommittee heard from legal specialists and representatives of the American Gaming Association and Indian Gaming Association.
Both gaming groups have pressed Congress to stop platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket from offering sports event contracts. According to the associations, those products function like ordinary sports bets but can bypass state gambling controls, tribal gaming rights and established responsible-betting requirements.
Prediction-market supporters have argued that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission already has authority over event contracts. The CFTC supported federal jurisdiction in disputes involving state regulators and released draft rules for the prediction-market industry in June.
State courts have not consistently accepted that federal authority prevents local enforcement. On July 21, a Washington judge granted the state a preliminary injunction against Kalshi, finding that its contracts likely violated state gambling laws. Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and New York had also secured orders restricting the company’s activities.
Alongside disputes over sports products, possible informed trading has brought another source of scrutiny. Polymarket has referred nearly 100 suspicious crypto wallets to law enforcement while increasing its monitoring of possible insider activity, according to information provided in the additional reporting.
A Bloomberg analysis of Polysights data identified about $200 million in Polymarket trades from the first half of 2026 that carried traits associated with potential insider activity. Much of the flagged volume involved geopolitical contracts connected to Iran and Venezuela.
The findings did not establish that every identified trade involved unlawful conduct. They instead quantified the activity selected for closer examination as regulators assess whether prediction platforms can protect customers and prevent traders from exploiting nonpublic information.
Polymarket’s French challenge now places those concerns before a national court. Whatever the outcome, the case will determine whether ANJ’s website block stands while regulators in Europe and the United States pursue separate approaches to event-contract oversight.
