ANJ orders ISPs to block Polymarket in France over illegal gambling concerns

France’s gambling regulator, ANJ, has told internet service providers to block access to Polymarket after a two-year investigation into Adventure One, the platform’s parent company. For high-risk payment providers, the point is not just the block itself: the regulator is treating prediction markets as unlicensed gambling, with KYC, promotion, and access controls all under the microscope.

1. ANJ used its administrative blocking powers to require French ISPs to restrict access to Polymarket’s website and its variants. The regulator said the platform’s services amounted to unlicensed games of chance and were therefore illegal under French law.
2. Polymarket first drew ANJ’s attention in November 2024. After a formal warning, the operator introduced geoblocking to stop French IP addresses from making transactions, but ANJ said that did not fully prevent access or stop users from bypassing the restrictions with technological means.
3. The regulator also focused on Polymarket’s homepage, which publicly displayed dynamically updated odds for multiple events and, in ANJ’s view, acted as a promotional channel for French users. Data cited by ANJ showed 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique French visitors in June 2026 alone.
4. ANJ listed several reasons for the blocking action: prediction markets remain unauthorised in France; the absence of robust regulation raises addiction and market integrity concerns; and some markets, such as wagers tied to weather data, raised suspicion of possible data manipulation. That last point prompted an investigation by the Paris public prosecutor’s cybercrime unit on 4 May 2026, with OFAC tasked to handle the case.
5. The regulator also said Polymarket had failed to deploy effective know-your-customer (KYC) procedures to verify user identities and assess trustworthiness, which it described as a fundamental requirement under French and European rules. Under French law, promoting or disseminating odds for unlicensed gambling sites is a criminal offence punishable by fines up to €100,000 ($114,347).

ANJ said this was not a one-off move: in 2025, it reported blocking 1,290 URLs linked to illegal gambling services. Last week, it also imposed a €500,000 fine on an unnamed online betting operator, Company X, for not adequately identifying and supporting customers exhibiting problems.