The French National Gambling Authority (ANJ) is examining the operations of the prediction platform Polymarket to assess its compliance with the country’s gambling laws, reports The Big Whale.
According to the publication, the regulator’s attention was drawn by a French trader known as Theo4, who placed a bet exceeding $30 million on Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election. As per Polymarket, his net profit amounted to approximately $19 million.
“Even if Polymarket uses cryptocurrencies, it remains a betting activity, which is illegal in France,” said a source close to ANJ.
Experts suggest that the regulator might block the platform’s domain name within the country and exert pressure on third parties providing it access to the French market.
“This particularly concerns media outlets that might have distributed links to Polymarket or gaming directories,” they note.
The publication believes that potential geoblocking will be easily circumvented using a VPN, as Polymarket does not require users to provide their identity to create an account.
In recent months, activity on the prediction platform has surged due to the U.S. presidential elections. In total, players worldwide have wagered over $3.2 billion on this event. On November 5, the platform recorded a volume of $294 million, according to Dune Analytics.
Previously, the service Layerhub calculated that only 13.6% of Polymarket users (24,565 wallets) made a profit, with most earning less than $100.