France and Czech regulators block prediction markets

TLDR

France and Czech authorities have ordered internet providers to block access to crypto prediction markets such as Polymarket, treating them as unauthorized gambling.

1. Frances gambling regulator ANJ and Czechias Ministry of Finance have instructed ISPs to block Polymarkets website under national gambling rules.
2. Regulators cite illegal gambling, weak identity checks, and integrity risks, while EU financial regulators warn event contracts can resemble banned binary options.
3. For crypto users, this signals growing European pressure on prediction markets, likely leading to tighter retail access and more fragmentation of liquidity.

Deep Dive

1. What France And Czechia Did

Frances National Gambling Authority (ANJ) ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket on 16 July 2026, after earlier geoblocking was bypassed by French users, classing its markets as illegal gambling and unauthorized promotion of odds and payouts. ANJs move targets Polymarkets web front end rather than its underlying smart contracts, and promoting such sites can carry fines up to 100,000.

The Czech Republics Ministry of Finance similarly added Polymarket to a List of Unauthorized Internet Games on 13 July 2026 and gave local ISPs 15 days to block its domains and IPs, also treating its event markets as unlicensed gambling services. These measures are detailed in recent regulator-focused summaries.

2. Why Regulators Are Worried

French authorities highlight several risks: lack of robust identity checks, concerns that external data feeds (for example, weather sensors) may have been hacked, and general worries about market manipulation and consumer protection on Polymarkets event contracts.

At the EU level, ESMA has reminded firms and national regulators that some event-based contracts with binary payouts may qualify as financial instruments under MiFID II, which lets countries apply existing bans on retail binary options to prediction markets. Academic work cited by regulators points to settlement-price manipulation incentives and estimates around $1.28 million shifted from regular traders to sophisticated participants in short-term Bitcoin markets.

This comes at a time when prediction markets are booming: combined volumes across platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi have jumped sharply, with recent reports showing record quarterly notional volume of around $113.8 billion, contrasting with softer spot and perps trading on traditional exchanges.

3. What It Means For Crypto Users And Platforms

France and Czechia are using ISP-level DNS and IP blocking, which turns local internet providers into gatekeepers for access to prediction markets web interfaces, even though the smart contracts themselves remain live on-chain. Other EU countries can now copy this approach quickly using gambling law plus ESMAs binary-options framing.

Platforms may respond with stricter geofencing, heavier KYC and location checks, or product redesigns that move away from simple yes/no binary structures, but local licensing will be challenging where binary options are already restricted for retail. For users, the practical effects are intermittent access, tighter compliance checks, and likely fragmentation of liquidity across jurisdictions and front ends.

Conclusion

France and Czechias ISP blocks show European regulators are willing to treat popular crypto prediction platforms as illegal gambling or binary-option lookalikes, even as volumes reach record highs. The core tension is between their growing role in market information and regulators concern over retail protection, integrity, and AML. For crypto users and projects, the key is monitoring how many other jurisdictions follow France and Czechia, and whether platforms can adapt their structures without losing the core benefits of prediction-based trading.