France and Czech Republic order ISP blocks of Polymarket as unlicensed gambling
France's gambling regulator ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket on Friday, July 17, citing gambling-law violations. The move came four days after the Czech Ministry of Finance added Polymarket to its blacklist of unauthorized online gambling websites on July 13, ordering ISPs to block the platform within 15 days. Both countries classify the CFTC-regulated prediction market platform as an unlicensed gambling operator rather than a regulated financial exchange.
Polymarket must now fight product classification on two new European fronts simultaneously. France and the Czech Republic both reject its CFTC-regulated status and apply national gambling law instead. The French order came without warning or negotiation window. The Czech block arrives on a fixed 15-day timeline. Both leave no room for the platform to restructure contracts or seek local licensing fast enough.
Each blacklist shrinks the addressable market where Polymarket can serve retail users without geofencing. Rival platforms face identical risk: national regulators are treating event contracts as binary options outside financial exemptions. Polymarket's choice is now fight everywhere or abandon EU retail entirely. The cost of fighting rises with each new jurisdiction.
The French and Czech blocks join the ESMA warning that EU retail binary options rules already cover prediction-market event contracts as national regulators now apply that framework through direct enforcement.