France's gambling regulator has ordered the country's internet service providers to block access to Polymarket, a website where people bet on the outcomes of real-world events. The regulator's president took the action on July 16, 2026, and announced it publicly on July 17 (France24).

The regulator, called the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), considers Polymarket an illegal gambling operation under French law (ANJ). It published its decision under the title "Promotion d'une offre de jeux d'argent illégale: blocage du site Polymarket." The ANJ is France's independent authority responsible for licensed gambling and betting games, and it has the legal power to order internet providers to block gambling websites that operate without approval.

This is not the first time the ANJ has gone after Polymarket. In November 2024, the regulator blocked financial transactions from French users on the platform, making it impossible for them to deposit money or collect winnings (ANJ, November 2024). At the time, the ANJ said Polymarket had stopped offering services in France as a result. The regulator cited non-payment of winnings and fraud as specific risks to users.

But blocking payments did not stop French residents from visiting the site itself. According to the ANJ, Polymarket received 578,751 visits from French internet addresses in June 2026, including 205,057 unique visits (Engadget). Those traffic numbers appear to have driven the regulator's decision to go further and block the website entirely.

The rules the ANJ enforces carry consequences beyond the platform. Anyone caught advertising an unauthorized gambling site in France can be fined up to 100,000 euros (about $114,000). The ANJ has used its blocking powers widely; as of November 2024, it had blocked more than 944 URLs of illegal gambling sites.

France is not alone. Polymarket has faced restrictions in several other countries, including Singapore, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine, Brazil, and Indonesia (TradingView). The common thread is that these countries treat prediction markets — platforms where people bet on outcomes like elections or sports — as gambling rather than financial trading, which brings them under stricter rules.

The broader context here is what France's step-by-step approach reveals about the difficulty of regulating online platforms. Blocking the flow of money did not stop people from visiting the site, and traffic held steady despite the earlier restrictions. Ordering internet providers to block the site is a stronger measure, but technically savvy users can still get around it using tools like VPNs, which disguise their location. What the block does effectively prevent is easy, everyday access for ordinary users.

For companies running prediction markets, the French action points to a tightening regulatory landscape worldwide. Whether these platforms count as gambling, financial trading, or something existing laws do not cover is still being debated, and different countries answer the question differently. France has made its answer clear. The traffic numbers suggest that classifying the site as illegal, without also blocking access at the internet level, was not enough to change how people behaved.