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The Portuguese Gaming Regulatory and Inspection Service, SRIJ, has given blockchain forecasting platform Polymarket two days to cease operations in the country. The formal reason given was Polymarket’s lack of a license for bookmaker services.
Over the past few days, user activity on the platform has increased sharply. The surge is caused by the presidential elections, which ended in Portugal on January 18. The volume of bets on the voting results exceeded 103 million euros (about $120 million). Portuguese media wrote about the dangers of insider trading on Polymarket. According to radio station Renascença, several hours before Antonio José Seguro’s victory was announced, more than 4 million euros were withdrawn from the prediction platform. The probability of this politician being elected was estimated at 60%, and Andre Ventura’s competitor at 30%.
SRIJ insists: in Portugal, betting on political events is illegal. According to local online gambling laws, betting on sports, online casinos and betting on horse racing is allowed. Although Polymarket remains an accessible platform for Portuguese users, after 48 hours the regulator intends to force Internet providers to block the platform. The regulator did not specify what will happen to the money of users who do not have time to withdraw it before blocking.
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Polymarket is a resource where users can place bets on real events – from the outcome of political elections to the results of sports competitions. The mechanism is as follows: participants buy tokens indicating a possible outcome of the event; the more tokens sold, the more votes for one or another outcome. The blockchain platform was founded in 2020.
The Polymarket platform is officially banned in 33 countries. Among them are Russia, Belarus, Singapore, Italy, Thailand, Germany, Great Britain, France, Australia, Belgium. In some countries, access to Polymarket is completely blocked – for example, in Belgium. In Russia, the site’s operation is “slowed down.” In France, users are allowed to view platform content without the ability to make transactions, and in Poland and Thailand, existing positions can be closed, but new ones cannot be opened.
On January 12, Polymarket was included in the list of prohibited companies by the authorities of Ukraine. In the United States, after a scandal involving insider bets on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a bill was introduced to limit the forecast market.
