After weeks of escalating tensions between Polymarket and the French authorities, the favored prediction betting market opted to dam France-based customers on Friday—chopping out a significant marketplace for the location.
Customers making an attempt to entry the location from France in the present day discovered a brand new pop-up stopping them from doing so.
“You seem like situated in the USA, France, or one other associated jurisdiction,” the brand new pop-up reads. “Buying and selling shouldn’t be accessible to U.S. individuals, individuals situated in the USA, France, or individuals situated in restricted jurisdictions.”
Whereas U.S.-based customers have been blocked from accessing Polymarket since 2022, following a settlement with the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC), France was, till in the present day, a key marketplace for the betting website.
That will have been a part of the issue. Within the weeks main as much as the U.S. presidential election—a marquee occasion for Polymarket that attracted billions of {dollars}’ value of wagers—an nameless French person attracted worldwide scrutiny for putting $45 million value of bets on Donald Trump’s victory from varied accounts.
Within the instant aftermath of the revelation of this French person’s large place—and swirling considerations in regards to the potential for insider buying and selling on Polymarket—a report surfaced that France’s nationwide gaming regulator deliberate to ban the location in French territories.
It seems that Polymarket beat France to the punch in the present day, by preemptively blocking all customers based mostly within the nation.
“Customers in France can proceed to entry Polymarket for essential details about the occasions that matter most to them, however in the interim we’ve hit pause on new trades,” an organization spokesperson advised Decrypt. “We took this step proactively whereas we proceed to have interaction with stakeholders within the nation about our platform and prediction markets extra typically.”
Decrypt reached out to the ANJ, France’s nationwide gaming authority, however didn’t instantly obtain a response
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Editor’s word: This story was up to date after publication with remark from Polymarket.
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