France's gambling regulator, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), has ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction market. The order, published July 17, 2026, comes after the ANJ concluded that Polymarket's earlier geoblock wasn't enough to stop French users from placing bets.
Why the ANJ moved now
The ANJ first contacted Polymarket's operator, Adventure One QSS Inc. — a Panamanian company — back in November 2024. At the time, the regulator said the platform's services qualified as unauthorized gambling under French law. Polymarket responded by putting up a geoblock. The ANJ initially described that block as preventing bets from France, but later said users found ways around it.
Data from Similarweb, cited by the ANJ, shows the scale of the problem: in June 2026 alone, Polymarket got 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique visitors from France. That's a lot of traffic for a site the regulator considers illegal.
What Polymarket did — and didn't do
Polymarket's geographic restrictions page currently lists France as 'close-only' on both the front end and the API. That means existing users can close positions but can't open new ones. The ANJ, however, says that restriction was circumvented in practice. The regulator's order now targets the website and its service interface directly — not the separate Polygon settlement layer where the smart contracts live.
Polymarket describes its system as a hybrid: orders are matched off-chain, but settled atomically through a contract on Polygon. That distinction matters because the ANJ's order can't reach the blockchain itself. The regulator grounded its case in gambling law, not crypto regulation.
The legal basis — and what comes next
The ANJ used Article 61 of French law, the same process it used to block 1,290 URLs associated with illegal gambling in 2025. The regulator cited risks like addiction, lack of identity and age checks, and fewer consumer protections than licensed operators.
Polymarket hasn't publicly commented on the order. The question now is whether the company will try to fight the block or simply accept that French users are cut off from the front end. The blockchain layer remains untouched, but for most users, the website is the only way in. If the ISPs comply — and they usually do — Polymarket's French traffic will drop sharply.
