Morning Edition · Sunday, July 19, 2026Published at 1:27 AM EDT · New York
France Orders Internet Providers to Block Polymarket, Widening the Global Squeeze on Prediction Markets
The gambling regulator cited addictive design, missing self-exclusion tools and possible manipulation of weather markets. French traffic to the site had risen to more than 578,000 monthly visits despite a 2024 payments ban.
France has escalated its move against Polymarket, the blockchain-based prediction market, from a financial ban to a full network block. The Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), France's national gambling authority, ordered internet service pr…
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Prediction Markets Collide With Gambling and Securities Rules
As prediction markets scale into a mainstream forecasting and betting layer, regulators keep treating them as gambling or derivatives venues, pushing the contest between licensed centralized platforms and censorship-resistant decentralized ones.
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