Czech Republic moves to block Polymarket over unlicensed gambling

The Czech Ministry of Finance added prediction market platform Polymarket to the country's list of unauthorized internet games earlier this week, making it the latest European jurisdiction to move against the platform over unlicensed gambling.

The listing, published July 13 by the ministry's Department of Procedural Agendas and Gambling Regulation, places Polymarket among other domains the government considers to be operating outside the country's gambling framework.

Internet service providers must block access to the platform within 15 days of its publication on the list under Czech gambling law. The Institute for the Regulation of Gambling highlighted the ministry's decision in a press release on Tuesday.

"This is not about banning innovation," Jan Řehola, director of the Institute for the Regulation of Gambling, said in the release. "It's about ensuring that the same rules apply to everyone who offers betting for money."

The Czech Republic joins a growing list of jurisdictions that have restricted access to Polymarket. According to the Institute for the Regulation of Gambling, the platform has already been restricted or blocked in Germany, Belgium, Romania, Switzerland, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, and Ukraine, while Brazil also took similar action this year. 

The institute also cited actions or warnings from gambling regulators in the Netherlands, France and the UK, which have maintained that prediction markets may be subject to gambling rules despite describing their products as event contracts.

The European crackdown coincides with continuing regulatory pressure in the U.S., where a Polymarket-affiliated entity filed applications with the National Futures Association to offer regulated margin trading, pending additional approvals from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In June, Senators John Curtis and Adam Schiff called on the CFTC to investigate Polymarket following a Wall Street Journal report alleging fake betting promotions by social media creators.

Despite regulatory headwinds, trading activity across the industry remains elevated. According to The Block's data dashboard, combined monthly trading volume across Kalshi, Polymarket, and Polymarket US rose 75% in June to $44.8 billion, up from $25.7 billion in May, amid heightened activity around the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

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