Kansspelcommissie, the Gambling Authority of Belgium, has added Polymarket to its blacklist of illegal gambling websites as of 30 January 2025.
Belgian news sources report that the Authority has determined Polymarket to be non-compliant with the Gambling Act of Belgium.
Polymarket is reported to have failed to respond to three separate warnings issued by the Kansspelcommissie, which subsequently submitted a request to the public prosecutor of Belgium to block IP access to the Polymarket website. The Authority has not provided specific information on Polymarket’s engagement with Belgian consumers.
Founded in 2020 by technologist Shayne Coplan, Polymarket describes itself as a cryptocurrency platform that offers prediction markets on real events for investors, including political outcomes, economic indicators, weather patterns, and awards.
The platform gained notoriety during the 2024 US election, reporting over $3.3 billion in traded predictions on the outcome of the US presidential race, which was won by Donald Trump.
Yet, controversy surrounds Polymarket, which states that it remains unavailable to US customers as it awaits a determination by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on its status to trade event predictions as a derivatives platform.
Founder Shayne Coplan views Polymarket as a disruptor of traditional polling and forecasting, arguing that the crypto platform has democratised audience engagement with biased news cycles.
Notably, Polymarket predicted that all US swing states would favour a Donald Trump victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, despite mainstream polls and forecasts predicting a close contest.
Following the US election, Polymarket withdrew from France, after the French gambling authority ANJ launched an investigation into a reported French gambler who had wagered $30m on a Trump victory.
Polymarket has received backing from high-profile investors Peter Thiel and Vitalik Buterin, the founder of the Ethereum blockchain, who support Polymarket’s mission to liberate forecasting from biased sources.
Critics argue that Polymarket is an unlicensed platform lacking transparency regarding who can influence its predictions. They contend that its markets remain susceptible to large-scale transactions, dismissing Polymarket as a genuine disruptor to traditional methods of forecasting and analysis.