Polymarket in France and Belgium: what the ANJ blocked

Polymarket is blocked in France by order of the Autorité nationale des jeux. On 16 July 2026 the ANJ president ordered French internet service providers to cut access to polymarket.com, because the site promotes an unauthorized gambling offer. Belgium got there first: the Belgian Gaming Commission put polymarket.com on its blocked list with a decision dated 30 January 2025. Forecasting the same events without a stake is a separate activity in both countries.

Last checked: 4 September 2026.

This is not legal advice.

What exactly happened in France?

The ANJ published its decision on 17 July 2026. According to the ANJ statement, the president of the authority ordered French ISPs on 16 July 2026 to block access to polymarket.com, operated by Adventure One QSS Inc.

The story starts earlier. The ANJ says its attention was drawn to the company's services from November 2024. A first formal notice, a mise en demeure, led Adventure One QSS Inc. to put in place geoblocking that prevented financial transactions from French territory, but the ANJ says this was worked around in practice. In February 2026 the authority publicly restated that prediction sites are not authorized in France and count as illegal gambling sites.

Two things then pushed the file forward. On 4 May 2026 the cybercrime unit of the Paris public prosecutor opened an investigation, handed to the Office anti-cybercriminalité, after weather markets on the platform appeared distorted and weather probes may have been hacked. The ANJ adds that the Polymarket platforms available to French and European users had no know your customer checks, so most players and the origin of their funds could not be verified.

Traffic was the other factor. The ANJ recorded 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique visitors from France in June 2026. The authority also notes that advertising an unlicensed gambling site is a criminal offence in France, punishable by a fine of 100,000 euros, and that it blocked 1,290 URLs in 2025.

Polymarket is contesting the order. In a press release dated 21 August 2026 the company said it had filed a petition through the appropriate legal channels in France, stated that it had already blocked trading from France in November 2024 after discussions with the ANJ, and said no new enforcement or disciplinary measures had been taken by the ANJ in the intervening period. As of 4 September 2026 the block is in force and the case is open.

What does French law actually require for something to be gambling?

Four things, and one of them is money. The ANJ's own guidance for people planning a gambling project lists the criteria: an offer made to the public, under any name; an offer that creates an expectation of a gain; that expectation being due, even partly, to chance; and "un sacrifice financier exigé de la part des participants", a financial sacrifice required from participants. The same page notes that under article L. 320-1 of the code de la sécurité intérieure gambling is prohibited in principle, with exceptions listed in article L. 320-6.

The fourth criterion is the one that decides whether a forecasting product is regulated in France. If nothing is paid in and nothing of value is paid out, the offer is not a jeu d'argent et de hasard, and the ANJ's licensing and blocking powers over gambling offers have nothing to attach to.

What did Belgium do, and when?

Belgium acted about eighteen months before France. The Belgian Gaming Commission, the Kansspelcommissie or Commission des jeux de hasard, maintains a public register of illegal gambling sites blocked in Belgium. polymarket.com appears on that register as entry 582, with a decision date of 30 January 2025 and blocking from 5 February 2025.

The register is the primary document to check, because it carries the two dates that matter, the decision and the block, for every listed domain. Belgian internet providers block the listed domains, and the list is updated as new entries are added.

Where else in French speaking Europe and Canada?

Switzerland blocks it at the ISP level, and it has done so since 2024. The Swiss Gambling Supervisory Authority, Gespa, publishes a blocklist under Art. 86 and following of the Federal Act on Gambling and Art. 88 and following of the Gambling Ordinance. In the version dated 25 August 2026, polymarket.com is listed with the date 26 November 2024, and four Swiss-facing lookalike domains (polymarket-swiss.ch, polymarketschweiz.ch, polymarketsuisse.ch and polymarketswitzerland.ch) were added on 25 August 2026.

Quebec has taken a position too. On 27 August 2026 Loto-Québec issued a statement saying that prediction market platforms offering sports and entertainment event contracts are not legal in Quebec, and that it is the only body authorized to offer money gambling in the province. That statement names no platform, and it is a position from the provincial operator rather than a blocking order.

Jurisdiction	Money betting on events allowed?	Body	Instrument or list	Date
France	No, site blocked	Autorité nationale des jeux	Blocking order to ISPs	16 Jul 2026
Belgium	No, site blocked	Belgian Gaming Commission	Blocked sites register, entry 582	30 Jan 2025 (decision)
Switzerland	No, site blocked	Gespa	Blocklist, Art. 86 ff. Federal Act on Gambling	26 Nov 2024
Quebec	No, per Loto-Québec	Loto-Québec	Public statement	27 Aug 2026

Nine European regulators put their names to the same concern on 19 June 2026, when Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland published a joint statement on prediction markets. That is a signal about direction: the pressure in Europe is increasing, not easing.

Why we do not recommend a VPN

A VPN moves your apparent IP address. It does not move any of the things the regulators objected to. The ANJ's complaint was about an unauthorized gambling offer with no identity checks, not about your routing. Changing the route leaves the offer exactly as unauthorized as it was.

It also leaves you with the practical problem. If money is stuck on a platform your own regulator has ordered blocked, the regulator is not going to help you get it back, and the platform has every reason to apply its own rules to an account that looks like it came from a blocked country. We sell no VPN and take no affiliate fee from one, which is why we can say plainly that this is a bad trade.

The honest alternative is not a workaround. It is to stop putting money in.

What stays legal without money?

A public forecast with nothing staked and nothing won. On insiderz you make a call on the same yes or no events Polymarket lists. A call is yes or no plus how sure you are. There is no deposit, no play currency you can buy, no prize.

The call is locked the second you post it. The time and the Polymarket price at that moment are frozen, and the call cannot be edited or deleted, not by you and not by us. When the event resolves, the call is scored against the market price that was frozen with it. The market price is the bar to beat, and the record is the proof.

Your account is a wallet signature. No email, no name. Calls go public after a delay, and followers with live access see them the moment they are made. The leaderboard ranks insiders on Beats market, Events, Edge and Early. Bots can play through the public API under the same rules.

What to check before you rely on any of this

Legal status here moves in months, not years. France went from a payment level restriction to a full site block between November 2024 and July 2026, and Polymarket filed a challenge a month after that. Belgium's entry carries two dates that can both change if the register is updated. The Swiss blocklist is republished with a new date each time domains are added.

Check the primary documents rather than a news summary: the ANJ decision page, the Belgian Gaming Commission register, and the current Gespa blocklist PDF. For the wider picture read where Polymarket is blocked, the law on free prediction platforms, and the comparison of free prediction platforms.