- France's gambling regulator is reportedly preparing to ban Polymarket in the country.
- The crypto-based platform came to the regulator's attention after a report that a Frenchman used it to place massive bets on the US presidential election.
France’s gaming regulator will ban access to Polymarket, the crypto-based betting website that rose to prominence as traders made multimillion-dollar wagers on the US presidential election, in the European country.
That’s according to a report from The Big Whale, a French website that covers the crypto industry.
The regulator, whose French acronym is ANJ, “is expected to ban access to the site in the near future,” according to the report.
It cites an unnamed source close to the ANJ, who called Polymarket “a betting activity,” adding, “this is not legal in France.”
The regulator told The Big Whale it is “currently examining [Polymarket’s] operation as well as its compliance with French gambling legislation.”
The ANJ and Polymarket did not immediately return DL News’ requests for comment. The Big Whale did not state in its report whether it sought comment from Polymarket.
By the time US voters went to the polls on Tuesday, Polymarket topped $3.5 billion in total cumulative volume, according to data from Dune Analytics.
Polymarket’s performance has been one of the many surprises of this election cycle.
Even as mainstream finance players such as Bloomberg featured Polymarket on the presidential contest on their own platforms, experts were sceptical about its utility as an effective prediction device.
But it was vindicated this year when President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and when Donald Trump won — outcomes Polymarket suggested were more likely than not well before they came to pass, according to bets placed on its platform.
Polymarket has also been in the crosshairs of US regulators.
In May, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed a rule that targets prediction markets, also known as event contracts, arguing they are ripe for manipulation and create perverse incentives. Public comment on the proposed rule ended in August. As of Wednesday, it was unclear whether the Securities and Exchange Commission would issue such a rule.
Polymarket came to the attention of French regulators as one heavy user, a Frenchman who goes by the named Théo, placed massive bets on a Trump victory, according to The Big Whale.
Before The Wall Street Journal published an interview with Théo, the trader’s massive bets inspired speculation someone was attempting to manipulate the market.
But Théo simply thought Trump was the likely winner, he told the Journal. His bet earned him a massive $49 million payout after the race was called for Trump early Wednesday, according to data on the platform.
Aleks Gilbert is a DeFi correspondent based in New York. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.
