Polymarket banned in Belgium

Polymarket banned in Belgium

Belgium’s Kansspelcommissi has added the crypto betting platform to its list of illegal gambling websites.

Belgium.- The Belgian gambling regulator Kansspelcommissi has placed the cryptocurrency-based prediction betting platform Polymarket on its blacklist of illegal gambling websites. The move comes after the site introduced geoblocking in France following an investigation by  L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ).

Kansspelcommissi said that Polymarket was found to be operating in breach of Belgian gambling legislation and that it failed to respond to three warnings. The regulator therefore submitted a request for IP blocking to the public prosecutor.

Polymarket was founded by Shayne Coplan and is operated by Adventure One QSS. The cryptocurrency-based platform offers prediction markets on real events, from politics to awards, economic indicators, and the weather. It gained headlines in the run-up to the US presidential election, with more than $3.3bn traded in predictions on the result.

The French gambling regulator began investigating the platform after it was reported that a French player had bet $30m that Trump would win the US election. The ANJ said it contacted Adventure One QSS in late November and that the operator agreed to use geoblocking to prevent access from France. This was reportedly applied from November 21. The ANJ said that any French players affected who can no longer access their accounts should contact the operator.

In 2022, Polymarket was fined $1.4m by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission for failing to register. Its trading was suspended for a time. It remains controversial in the US, with some critics suggesting that it lacks transparency and that markets can be swung by big transactions.

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