The National Gambling Authority of France (ANJ) has decided to oblige local internet providers to block access to the decentralized prediction market platform Polymarket. From the perspective of French legislation, the activities of such services are equated to illegal gambling.
It is important to note that geo-blocking of transactions on the platform has been in effect since 2024, but this did not stop French users. They actively bypassed the restrictions using VPNs and other tools. According to analysts, in June of this year, the Polymarket website was visited by over 205,000 unique users from France — this indicates high demand for such financial instruments despite regulatory pressure.
The regulator also expressed concern about the risk of manipulation of event outcomes on which bets are placed. Particular resonance was caused by an investigation launched by the Paris prosecutor's office in May: suspicions involve hacking meteorological sensors to gain an advantage in betting on weather events. This is the first case where a crypto prediction market has been linked to direct cybercrime for profit fixing.
As of today, Polymarket is already blocked in 36 jurisdictions worldwide, including major markets such as Singapore, Poland, Ukraine, and Brazil. This forms a steady trend: regulators increasingly view decentralized betting platforms as a threat to national gambling monopolies and financial security.
My analysis: France's decision is a logical step in the global fight against unlicensed crypto-gambling platforms. However, the effectiveness of such blocks is questionable: French users have already shown they are willing to bypass restrictions. As long as Polymarket maintains its decentralized architecture and does not require KYC, complete eradication of access to it at the provider level is unlikely. The real battle will unfold at the level of financial flows and sanctions against infrastructure developers.