French authorities may ban Polymarket soon

ANJ, the gambling regulator in France may put a ban on Polymarket soon. The betting website has become particularly popular due to the US elections. 

Polymarket has been the center of discussion among various regulatory agencies across the world. It allows users to bet on outcomes related to almost anything, such as sports results, prices of assets, geopolitical events like wars, and of course, election results.

Over $3.2 billion in bets were wagered on the US elections, and on 5th November alone, the website recorded a $294 million volume. However, according to a recent report published in The Big Whale, France may ban Polymarket for its citizens soon.

France considers Polymarket bets to be the same as gambling

William O’Rorke from ORWL Avocats mentioned, “Polymarket consists of betting money on something random, that’s strictly the definition of gambling, it’s like a sports bet.”

Since betting is not legal in France, Polymarket comes under scrutiny despite the fact that it uses cryptocurrencies instead of fiat.

What aroused the attention of French regulators?

There is a high likelihood that the unknown French trader who betted over $30 million on Trump’s victory is the primary reason why the French authorities have focused their attention towards Polymarket.

When it comes to actually blocking the website for French people, the regulators can block the domain name. The authorities can also put pressure on other sources that have shared links to the gambling site, such as media outlets and directors on the web.

However, even if France bans Polymarket for its citizens, getting around such blocks is not difficult for tech-savvy people. That is because Polymarket does not ask users to provide proof of their country (such as a driving license, or a national identity card) when registering for the site. All the users have to provide is a crypto wallet.

Even if the website’s domain does get blocked in France, it’s hard to enforce such a ban due to the existence of VPNs.