Polymarket will go to court over the block in France
The prediction market platform Polymarket intends to challenge the full blocking of its website in France through the courts. The company called the decision by French gambling regulator ANJ sudden and unilateral, and said it would defend its position through the local legal process.
French internet providers began restricting access to Polymarket after an order from the head of ANJ dated July 16, 2026. The regulator considers the platform an illegal gambling offering and says its operations do not comply with the country’s current requirements. The block will remain in place until the authorities recognize the service as compliant with French rules.
The story dates back to November 2024, when Polymarket first came to ANJ’s attention. After a warning, the platform disabled financial transactions for users from France. Betting from French territory was officially not allowed, but the website continued to open: visitors could follow markets, view current probabilities, and study results.
This view-only mode later became one of the reasons for tougher measures. According to ANJ, Polymarket’s homepage, with constantly updated odds, effectively continued to advertise a service that was not authorized in France. In June 2026, the platform received 578,751 visits from the country, including 205,057 unique users.
French authorities also said the initial restriction on financial transactions could be bypassed. The regulator also raised specific concerns about user protection, the absence of customer-identification mechanisms typical of a regulated market, and possible manipulation of the results of some contracts.
In particular, ANJ mentioned markets related to the weather. The authorities suspect that meteorological sensor data may have been altered to influence the outcome of bets. On May 4, 2026, the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office joined the investigation, and the case was transferred to the French Anti-Cybercrime Office.
Polymarket does not agree with this interpretation. The dispute is now moving beyond ordinary regulatory correspondence: the platform will have to prove in court that the full block was unfounded or disproportionate. Until the court rules, French users will not even be able to view probability data, as they could after betting was restricted in 2024.
France is not the only European country where authorities have taken action against prediction markets. Various restrictions against similar platforms have already been introduced in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and several other countries. For Polymarket, the French proceedings could become an important test: the outcome will help determine whether prediction markets can separate themselves from ordinary online gambling in the eyes of European regulators.
Olivia Grant is an iGaming news reporter at CasinosInCanada who covers casino industry updates, regulations, and market developments.
