If Polymarket had opened betting on its platform being blocked in Spain, surely a high percentage of users would have put money on it happening sooner or later. The trickle of countries that have imposed restrictions on the popular application, which makes it possible to win money by guessing the winner of the World Cup — not to mention the declaration of war or the start of a pandemic — continues to grow. Argentina suspended its use in March, while Brazil did so in April, India last week, and Indonesia on Monday. These are but a few examples. Other bans, like those of France and Switzerland, have been around longer, with prohibition in effect since 2024.
Polymarket doesn’t hide this reality. On its website, it has published a list of 33 countries and four regions in which it cannot legally operate, and to which Spain will now be added. “Polymarket is not available in certain countries and regions due to regulatory requirements and compliance with international sanctions,” states the company. Surprisingly, this list includes the United States, which is currently the country that produces the highest number of visits to the platform; 17.4%, according to numbers from Semrush.
How to explain this anomaly? In 2022, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Polymarket $1.4 million, and ordered it to halt its activity over regulatory infractions. That turnaround forced the site to ban access of U.S. users, but in online forums like Reddit and social media platforms like X, instructions began to be shared on how to evade the ban with the help of virtual private networks, or VPNs, a tool that allows location data on devices to be changed. That is to say, to make it look as though you are connecting from another country entirely.
Deepak Daswani, a hacker and cybersecurity expert, thinks that such tools will prevent a total shutdown of the site in countries with bans. “If you are a user now, and you already have an account from Spain, you will probably be able to continue operating with a VPN, but if you are a new user and want to create an account, once the block is implemented you won’t be able to, because there will be restrictions,” he says.
Polymarket is aware of this trick, and knows that it is in the eye of the regulators’ hurricane. It has publicly stated that it sees the use of VPNs as a violation of its terms of service. Though many users ignore these threats, they do dissuade others – or at least, make them think twice. “I would like to know if someone here lives in the United States and has experience with Polymarket geographic restrictions. I have been operating on Kalshi [a similar platform] and have had some success, but I’m not sure about trying Polymarket, because I’m worried about the risk of infringing on its location rules. Mi primary concern is that, even if I operate successfully, Polymarket will be able to freeze my funds or block my account if it detects that I’m accessing the platform from the United States,” a Reddit user posted two weeks ago.
Among the solutions given in the responses to their query, one is gaining traction: download the new application that Polymarket launched just last December for the U.S. market. The initiative was created out of its $112 million purchase in July 2025 of QCEX, a licensed derivatives exchange and clearinghouse that opened the door to Polymarket’s return to legality in November. The Trump administration’s increased flexibility with such practices, and its favorable cryptocurrency policies also helped. In fact, Trump’s oldest son Don Jr. is an investor in Polymarket through his firm 1789 Capital, and an advisor of Kalshi, its competitor.
When it first started, Polymarket allowed access to a reduced spectrum of bets, and users had to register on a waiting list through Apple’s iOS operating system. But its intention was always to grow. And increased regulatory laxness is leading U.S. states to take unilateral action. Last week, Minnesota became the first to ban betting markets like Polymarket and Kalshi, though the decision has been appealed by the Trump administration on the grounds that it lacked the authority to do so.
Suspicious bets in Portugal
Meanwhile, bans on the platform have been instituted in countries as varied as Somalia, Taiwan, Australia, Russia (including in the territories it has occupied in Ukraine) and North Korea. In the European Union, the number of nations that have opted to put a stop to the platform are in a minority. According to information from the platform, in addition to France and the recently added Spain, these include Belgium, Germany — which does allow for cash withdrawals, but not initiating new bets — Poland and Italy, where users can consult the markets and data, but not operate.
That list is not exhaustive, because it doesn’t include countries like Hungary and Portugal, which banned access in January after detecting patterns of suspicious bets during the presidential elections. The elections generated more than $116 million, but two hours before official results were announced, payouts for correct predictions changed dramatically, with bettors injecting almost $5 million shortly before the deadline, fueling fears that they had gained access to inside information from a leak of exit poll data.
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