Polymarket has announced it will challenge France's decision to block its website through the country's legal system, five days after the National Gambling Authority ordered internet service providers to restrict access to the crypto-based prediction market platform over concerns about gambling losses, contract manipulation, and suspected insider trading. U.S. authorities are separately examining sports contracts, customer protection, and prediction-market integrity.

Reuters reported on July 22 that Polymarket intends to contest the decision by France's gambling regulator, known as ANJ.

"We are disappointed by the French gaming authority's (ANJ's) sudden decision to unilaterally block our website — we intend to challenge this decision through the legal process in France," Polymarket stated.

ANJ President Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin issued the order on July 16, directing French internet service providers to restrict access to Polymarket. According to ANJ's statement cited by Reuters, the platform had attracted a large French audience while offering gambling and betting services that the regulator considers illegal under national law. A spokesperson for ANJ told Reuters that the block would remain in place until the regulator determines that Polymarket is compliant with France's gambling rules.

Polymarket's planned legal challenge will test whether the authority can continue restricting the website under its current classification of the platform. Unlike conventional sportsbooks, Polymarket enables users to trade contracts tied to outcomes in politics, economics, sports, weather, and armed conflicts. Traders buy positions representing possible results, with contract prices shifting as market expectations evolve.

French Regulator Focuses on Losses and Manipulation

ANJ linked its intervention to the potential financial losses users could face and the design of certain contracts available on Polymarket. The regulator warned that some of those markets could be manipulated and expose customers to substantial gambling losses.

Weather contracts drew particular scrutiny in ANJ's statement. The regulator noted that users had wagered on weather outcomes and raised suspicions that some participants may have traded using inside information.

Polymarket did not provide details about its legal arguments or specify when it would file the challenge. Its statement confirmed only that it would pursue the French legal process to oppose the restriction.

While ANJ targeted Polymarket in its July order, French authorities did not announce an equivalent block against rival platform Kalshi. Spain took a different approach in May, when its government temporarily prohibited both Polymarket and Kalshi from operating, as crypto.news reported. The divergent actions reflect the absence of a harmonized European framework for prediction markets, leaving each member state to classify and regulate the products under its own gambling, securities, or consumer-protection laws.

The French action comes as prediction platforms handle increasingly large sums. A person familiar with Polymarket's finances told Reuters in June that the company's annualized revenue had exceeded $1 billion. Trading across the sector has also surged around major sporting events. Dune Analytics data cited by Reuters showed that users wagered approximately $19.04 billion through Polymarket and Kalshi during the recently completed soccer World Cup.

Those figures have heightened the stakes in ongoing disputes over whether event contracts should be classified as financial instruments, gambling products, or a separate category requiring its own regulatory framework. French authorities have applied gambling law to Polymarket, while regulatory debates in the United States remain split between federal derivatives oversight and state betting laws.

U.S. Scrutiny Targets Sports Markets and Informed Trading

In the United States, the House Agriculture Committee has examined customer protection and market integrity in sports prediction markets. Its Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Subcommittee heard testimony from legal specialists as well as representatives of the American Gaming Association and the Indian Gaming Association.

Both gaming industry groups have urged Congress to prevent platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket from offering sports event contracts. According to the associations, those products function like ordinary sports bets but can bypass state gambling controls, tribal gaming rights, and established responsible-betting requirements.

Prediction-market advocates have countered that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission already holds authority over event contracts. The CFTC supported federal jurisdiction in disputes involving state regulators and released draft rules for the prediction-market industry in June. That position builds on the CFTC's longstanding role under the Commodity Exchange Act, under which the agency previously permitted designated contract markets to list event contracts, though it has also taken enforcement action against platforms operating without proper registration.

State courts, however, have not uniformly accepted that federal authority precludes local enforcement. On July 21, a Washington state judge granted a preliminary injunction against Kalshi, finding that its contracts likely violated state gambling laws. Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, and New York had also secured orders restricting the company's activities.

Alongside disputes over sports products, potential informed trading has drawn additional regulatory scrutiny. Polymarket has referred nearly 100 suspicious cryptocurrency wallets to law enforcement while expanding its monitoring of possible insider activity, crypto.news reported.

A Bloomberg analysis of Polysights data identified approximately $200 million in Polymarket trades from the first half of 2026 that exhibited traits associated with potential insider activity. Much of the flagged volume involved geopolitical contracts connected to Iran and Venezuela. The findings did not establish that every identified trade involved unlawful conduct; rather, the analysis quantified activity selected for closer examination as regulators assess whether prediction platforms can adequately protect customers and prevent traders from exploiting nonpublic information.

Polymarket's legal challenge in France now places these broader concerns before a national court. The case will ultimately determine whether ANJ's website block remains in effect while regulators across Europe and the United States pursue divergent approaches to event-contract oversight.