Polymarket Restricted Countries & Regulation

Polymarket restricts trading from 41 countries and territories, blocking four outright under US sanctions. Users in the remaining 37 can close existing positions but cannot open new ones. That group includes the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia.

The company operates two exchanges. On the international site, Polymarket.com, users trade event contracts that pay a fixed amount if a stated outcome happens and nothing otherwise. Prices reflect the probability traders assign to each outcome, as Alpha Finance's live prediction market odds show. American residents use Polymarket US, a separate, federally regulated app.

The full list of Polymarket restricted countries

Every entry in Polymarket's published restricted list falls into one of three groups. The table below reflects Polymarket's geographic restrictions page in its developer documentation as of 7 Oct 2026.

Of the 41 countries and territories, four are blocked completely and 32 are close-only across all channels. Five are close-only on the website alone. The list also names seven regions, three in Ukraine and four in Canada.

Polymarket says these restrictions comply with international sanctions and local financial regulation, as well as gambling, prediction market and anti-money laundering rules. The four fully blocked countries are sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Treasury unit responsible for administering sanctions.

Why Polymarket's two published lists differ

The customer help centre's geographic restrictions article, dated 14 Aug 2026, gives a simpler account than the developer documentation. It describes 39 countries as completely restricted, although its table contains 40 entries. Only Singapore, Poland, Thailand and Taiwan are labelled close-only.

Ireland, Japan, Malta and the Netherlands appear among the fully restricted countries in that article, while South Korea is omitted. The developer documentation specifies which restrictions apply to the website and which cover the API, the interface trading software uses to place orders directly.

What close-only access means on Polymarket

A user with close-only access can sell or settle positions they already hold but cannot make new trades. This status applies to all 37 regulatory restrictions. Traders in France or the United States, for example, can still exit positions opened earlier.

Users in the fully blocked group have no such option. According to the documentation, those in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and the three Ukrainian regions can neither place new orders nor close existing positions.

Only the website is close-only in Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea, and for sports markets in Malta. The API remains unrestricted.

To determine which rule applies, Polymarket checks the IP address behind each request. This number identifies an internet connection. The check returns the detected country and region, and orders from blocked locations are rejected.

Permissions depend on physical location rather than residency, the help centre says. Its example describes a user travelling to Bulgaria, an unrestricted country, who can continue trading there.

How Polymarket enforces location, identity and VPN rules

Attempts to conceal a restricted location breach Polymarket's contract. A virtual private network (VPN) makes an internet connection appear to originate in another country. Under section 2.1.4 of the Terms of Service, the help centre says, users may not use a VPN or similar tool to bypass geographic restrictions.

Gizmodo reported in June 2026 that Polymarket had begun blocking IP addresses associated with VPN services and requesting identity verification from some users. The report cited technology publication The Information.

Identity checks remain limited on the international site. Traders who want their servers placed next to Polymarket's own can complete a know your customer (KYC) form, a standard identity check offered in the developer documentation.

France's gambling authority said in July 2026 that the Polymarket platforms available to French and European users had no system for identifying users.

How the CFTC regulates Polymarket US

A 2022 settlement shut American residents out of polymarket.com. They are instead served by a separate exchange that Polymarket acquired in 2025.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the US derivatives regulator, ordered Polymarket to pay a $1.4 million penalty on 3 Jan 2022 for operating an unregistered market. It classified the platform's event contracts as swaps, agreements whose payments depend on a price, rate or event. Swaps may only be offered on a registered exchange.

Polymarket bought QCEX for $112 million on 21 Jul 2025. The acquisition gave it a clearinghouse and QCX LLC, a CFTC-licensed exchange that now trades as Polymarket US.

An amended CFTC order of designation followed, which Polymarket announced on 25 Nov 2025. It allows customers to trade through futures commission merchants (FCMs), brokers that hold customer funds for futures trading. Polymarket US remains subject to designated contract market (DCM) rules, the CFTC's framework for registered derivatives exchanges.

The app opened to US users in December 2025 under Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan, whose platform began operating in June 2020. On the international site, the United States remains close-only across both the website and API.

US states where Polymarket US is restricted

State regulators argue that Polymarket US's sports contracts amount to unlicensed betting, leaving state access unresolved despite its federal registration.

On 16 Jan 2026, the Nevada Gaming Control Board filed a civil enforcement action against Polymarket. A state judge granted a preliminary injunction against Polymarket US on 29 May 2026, according to the Board's litigation update of 1 Jun 2026. The order applies while the case continues.

New York sued on 24 Sep 2026. Attorney General Letitia James's lawsuit describes Polymarket US as an unlicensed gambling operation and seeks a court order preventing it from operating in the state. The complaint notes that the app accepts users aged 18 to 20, whereas New York requires mobile sports bettors to be 21. Polymarket has challenged the state in federal court, Al Jazeera reported.

Polymarket announced new user protections six days later. Traders can exclude themselves for 30 days, one year or a lifetime. US users can also set daily, weekly or monthly deposit limits.

Federal appeals courts disagree over states' enforcement powers. In litigation brought by rival exchange Kalshi, the Third Circuit shielded the company from New Jersey's gambling law in April 2026. The Sixth Circuit ruled on 25 Sep 2026 that Ohio and Tennessee may enforce theirs. Each ruling is covered in our guide to Kalshi's restricted countries and state disputes.

The CFTC supports the exchanges. On 2 Apr 2026, it sued Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois over their actions against registered exchanges.

Published state lists also conflict. A state tracker maintained by CBS Sports, a secondary source, stated on 6 Oct 2026 that the app operates in every state except Nevada. Yet the same table marks Polymarket as unavailable or blocked in Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland and Tennessee. Each court order can change availability.

How regulators outside the US treat Polymarket

Several governments have ordered internet providers to block Polymarket, including in countries the platform still serves. Absence from its restricted list does not establish that the site is lawful in a country.

Polymarket in France and the Netherlands

France initially blocked payments before moving to a full website block. On 16 Jul 2026, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), its gambling regulator, ordered internet providers to block the Polymarket website. Polymarket had stopped French transactions following an earlier formal notice, but the ANJ said the measure was being circumvented.

The ANJ counted 578,751 visits from France in June 2026. It considers the homepage's live odds advertising for an unauthorised gambling service, an offence carrying a €100,000 fine. Its statement also names European countries that have restricted or blocked prediction markets, including Romania, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal and the Czech Republic.

The Netherlands' Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa) imposed an order with a penalty on Polymarket's operator, Adventure One QSS Inc., for offering gambling without a licence. It later found that the operator had breached the order and forfeited a €420,000 penalty. Polymarket is contesting the decision in court, arguing that its contracts are financial products, CCN reported on 6 Oct 2026.

Polymarket in the European Union and Spain

Classification as financial products does not make event contracts available to EU retail clients. On 3 Jul 2026 the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said that event contracts qualifying as financial instruments fall under national bans on selling binary options to retail clients. A binary option pays a fixed amount or nothing based on a yes-or-no outcome.

Although Spain is absent from Polymarket's list, its gambling regulator has acted against the platform. The Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) opened sanction proceedings against Polymarket and Kalshi on 26 May 2026 and ordered both websites blocked until the case is resolved.

Polymarket in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada

Brazil's government announced the blocking of prediction platforms on 24 Apr 2026. Polymarket now lists Brazil as close-only. In Britain, the Gambling Commission says prediction markets would need a betting intermediary licence, the category used for betting exchanges.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) requested that internet providers block Polymarket on 13 Aug 2025, compliance publisher Vixio reported. According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), no prediction market is licensed as a financial market in Australia.

On 17 Apr 2025, the Ontario Securities Commission settled with Polymarket's operators over binary options sold to Ontario investors between June 2020 and May 2023. The operators paid a C$200,000 penalty. Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec are also now covered by Polymarket's restricted list.

Where Polymarket Perps is restricted

All US and Canadian users are excluded from Polymarket's leveraged product, whose restricted list is shorter than the prediction market list.

Polymarket Perps opened to the public on 3 Sep 2026, The Defiant reported. Its perpetual futures track the price of assets such as Bitcoin, a share index or gold without an expiry date. Traders post margin as collateral, then use leverage to hold positions larger than the amount deposited.

The Perps geographic restrictions page bars order placement from the United States, Canada, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. It does not list the United Kingdom, France or Australia. However, the page says further restrictions may apply under Polymarket notices or applicable law, so omission does not confirm access.

Maintenance margin is the minimum collateral required to keep a position open. It is 2.5% on a market with 20 times leverage. According to Polymarket's Perps documentation, a position using maximum leverage is liquidated, or forcibly closed, after losing roughly half its posted margin.

Funding payments pass between traders on opposing sides of a perpetual contract to keep its price near that of the underlying asset. For comparison with other venues, Alpha Finance tracks funding rates across six exchanges and perpetual futures on stocks, gold and oil.

What could change Polymarket restrictions next

Court rulings in the United States and Europe will determine whether the restricted list expands or contracts.

New Jersey asked the Supreme Court on 2 Sep 2026 to review the Third Circuit decision in Kalshi's favour. A ruling would settle state access for every federally registered prediction market, including Polymarket US. The justices have not yet said whether they will hear the case.

Separately, a CFTC proposal dated 10 Jun 2026 would assess event contracts individually rather than prohibit whole categories, according to a Congressional Research Service summary.

The Dutch court case tests whether a judge will accept event contracts as financial products. In France, the ANJ has said it will look for identity and location checks strong enough to keep French users off the service. Polymarket's documentation also states that its restricted list can change.

The risks of trading on Polymarket

Every Polymarket product carries a risk of loss. Access rules may also change while users hold open positions.

When an event contract settles against its holder, it pays nothing and the buyer loses the full purchase price. ASIC compares these contracts to binary options, on which about 75% of retail clients lost money. Its guidance also warns that offshore platform users lose access to local dispute resolution and client money safeguards.

Restrictions imposed after a trade can affect a user's ability to exit. Close-only status allows positions to be closed, but a full block prevents this. Using a VPN to trade from a restricted location breaches the Terms of Service, and the help centre warns of penalties.

Perps traders can lose their entire posted margin. As leverage rises, a smaller price move can trigger liquidation. Our liquidation price calculator shows that threshold for any entry price, leverage and margin.