Polymarket announced an appeal in French court five days after regulators ordered internet service providers to block the platform over concerns about gambling loss and market manipulation.
summary
- Polymarket will appeal France’s decision to block its website through the country’s courts.
- French regulators cited gambling losses, contract manipulation and suspected use of inside information.
- US authorities are separately examining sports contracts, customer protection and predictive market integrity.
Reuters I mentioned On July 22, the cryptocurrency-based prediction market intends to challenge the decision of the National Gambling Authority through the French legal system.
“We are disappointed by the surprise decision by the French Gaming Authority (ANJ) to unilaterally block our website – and we intend to challenge this decision through legal action in France,” Polymarket stated.
ANJ President Isabelle Falk-Perrotin issued the order on July 16, directing French ISPs to restrict access to Polymarket. According to an ANJ statement cited by Reuters, the site attracted a large French audience while offering gambling and betting services that the regulator considers illegal under national law.
An ANJ spokesman told Reuters that the ban will remain until the regulatory body deems Polymarket compliant with gambling rules in France. The planned Polymarket case will now test whether the authority can continue to restrict the website under its current platform classification.
Unlike traditional sportsbooks, Polymarket allows users to trade contracts linked to outcomes in politics, economics, sports, weather and armed conflicts. Traders buy positions that represent potential outcomes, with contract prices changing as market expectations move.
The 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 regulatory body warned that some of these markets could be manipulated and expose customers to significant losses in gambling.
Weather contracts received special attention in the ANJ statement. The regulator reported that users bet on weather outcomes and raised suspicions that some participants may have traded inside information.
Polymarket did not provide details about its legal arguments and did not say when it would file the appeal. Its statement only confirmed that it would use French legal procedures to oppose this restriction.
While ANJ targeted Polymarket in its July order, French authorities did not announce a similar ban against rival platform Kalshi in the same statement. Spain took a different approach in May when its government temporarily banned the two companies from operating the crypto.news website I mentioned.
The French action has arrived as forecasting platforms handle increasingly large sums. A person familiar with Polymarket’s finances told Reuters in June that the company’s annual revenue exceeded $1 billion.
Cross-sector trade around major sporting events has also increased. Dune Analytics data cited by Reuters showed that users bet about $19.04 billion through Polymarket and Kalshi during the recently ended FIFA World Cup.
These numbers have raised the stakes in disputes over whether event contracts should be treated as financial instruments, gambling products, or a separate category that requires its own rules. French authorities applied gambling law to Polymarket, while regulatory arguments in the United States remained divided between federal derivatives oversight and state-level betting laws.
US audit targets sports markets and informed trading
Across the Atlantic, the US House of Representatives Agriculture Committee Checked it Client protection and market integrity in sports prediction markets. The Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets and Rural Development heard from legal specialists and representatives of the American Gaming Association and the Indian Gaming Association.
The two gaming groups have lobbied Congress to block platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket from offering contracts for sporting events. According to For associations, these products operate like regular sports betting but can bypass state gambling controls, tribal gambling rights and responsible wagering requirements in place.
Prediction market proponents claim that the CFTC already has authority over event contracts. The CFTC backed federal jurisdiction in disputes involving state regulators, and issued draft rules for the prediction market industry in June.
State courts have not consistently accepted that federal authority bars local enforcement. On July 21, a Washington judge granted the state a Preliminary injunction v. Calci, finding that its contracts likely violated state gambling laws. The states of Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, and New York also obtained orders restricting the company’s activities.
Besides disputes over sports products, potential enlightened trade has brought another source of scrutiny. Polymarket has Nearly 100 suspicious cryptocurrency wallets were referred To law enforcement as it increases its monitoring of potential insider activity, according to information provided in additional reports.
A Bloomberg analysis of Polysights data identified about $200 million in Polymarket trades from the first half of 2026 that carried attributes associated with potential insider activity. A large portion of the reported volume was related to geopolitical contracts linked to Iran and Venezuela.
The results did not prove that every trade identified involved illegal behavior. Instead, they measure selected activity for closer examination as regulators evaluate whether prediction platforms are able to protect clients and prevent traders from exploiting non-public information.
Now Polymarket’s French challenge puts those concerns before a national court. Whatever the outcome, the case will determine whether the blocking of ANJ’s website will remain in place as regulators in Europe and the United States seek separate approaches to overseeing event contracts.
