Where is Polymarket restricted?
Polymarket is restricted in 40 of the 195 countries we cover: 
Australia, 
Belarus, 
Belgium, 
Brazil, 
Burundi, the 
Central African Republic, the 
DR Congo, 
Cuba, 
Ethiopia, 
France, 
Germany, 
Hungary, 
Indonesia, 
Iran, 
Iraq, 
Ireland, 
Italy, 
Japan, 
Lebanon, 
Libya, 
Myanmar, the 
Netherlands, 
New Zealand, 
Nicaragua, 
North Korea, 
Poland, 
Russia, 
Singapore, 
Slovakia, 
Slovenia, 
Somalia, 
South Korea, 
South Sudan, 
Sudan, 
Syria, 
Thailand, the 
United Kingdom, 
Venezuela, 
Yemen and 
Zimbabwe.
Polymarket publishes its own list. Its geographic restrictions page names 40 countries (it says 39) plus seven regions, and its developer docs sort them into three tiers: Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria are blocked completely, so even existing positions cannot be closed; most others are close-only, so you can sell what you hold but open nothing new; and Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea are close-only on the website while the API stays open. The docs list adds South Korea, which the help page lacks, and limits Malta to sports markets, so we record Malta as limited although the help page lists the whole country. The same lists name Taiwan, a territory outside our 195. Hungary and Slovenia come from Polymarket’s terms of use (effective 11 August 2026), which name them among the places where trading is not permitted, although neither is on the geoblock list. Indonesia is on neither list either: its digital ministry Komdigi blocked polymarket.com as online gambling on 22 May 2026 (Bitcoin.com), and we record it as restricted.
National regulators have acted against many of the same countries. In France Polymarket stopped serving French users after an ANJ intervention in November 2024, and in July 2026 the ANJ ordered internet providers to block the site because the geoblock was being circumvented; Australia’s ACMA had providers block it in August 2025 (Covers); Brazil’s government blocked it with 26 other prediction sites in April 2026 (Folha de Pernambuco); Italy’s ADM ordered its site blocked again in July 2026 (Calcio e Finanza); and the Dutch Ksa served Polymarket’s operator, Adventure One QSS Inc., with a penalty order of 420,000 euros a week, up to 840,000 euros, in January 2026. On 14 October 2026 we also asked Polymarket’s location check, from every country we could reach, whether it would let us trade.
We were refused in 15 of the 18 restricted countries we tested, by Polymarket’s location check everywhere except South Korea, where Cloudflare blocked the site under a government order. The list is below: pick a country to see its tier, what applies and what our test saw.
Where is Polymarket limited?
Polymarket is limited in 16 countries: 12 where a national regulator or court has ordered it blocked, plus 
Canada, 
Malta, 
Ukraine and the 
United States.
None of the 12 is on Polymarket’s own list, so Polymarket itself still lets people there trade; the limit comes from the other side. 
Switzerland put polymarket.com on the Gespa blocklist in November 2024 and 
Colombia’s Coljuegos asked providers to block it in September 2025. 
Romania’s ONJN blacklisted it in October 2025 (DL News), and in 2026 came 
Portugal (CoinDesk), 
Argentina (CoinDesk), 
India (CoinDesk) and 
Spain (CoinDesk).
The summer brought 
Czechia (The Block), 
Turkey (La Fleur’s), 
Denmark (Yogonet) and 
Lithuania (Focus Gaming News). In the 
Philippines Globe Telecom blocks Polymarket at PAGCOR’s request, while other networks still reach it (BitPinas). The other four are partial: Polymarket closes four Canadian provinces, sports markets on its website in Malta and three occupied Ukrainian regions, a national order also covers the rest of Ukraine (CoinDesk), and Americans are sent to Polymarket US.
Limited means Polymarket still serves the country, but a government blocks it there or Polymarket closes part of it. Through our VPN servers the page loaded in every national-order country we reached; those servers sit in data centres, outside the consumer networks the orders cover. The list is below.
Polymarket and national regulators, 2024 to 2026
The chart counts each blocking order, blacklisting or penalty once, in the quarter it was made, and colours it by our status today. Most actions fall in 2026, and seven came in the third quarter alone. France shows the usual order of events: Polymarket blocked French users itself after the regulator intervened in 2024, and the ISP order followed when that was not enough. Others, such as Spain and Switzerland, are still missing from Polymarket’s list.
Where is Polymarket available?
Polymarket is available in the other 139 of the 195 countries we cover, from 
Mexico and 
Nigeria to 
Bulgaria, 
Greece and 
United Arab Emirates.
None of them is on Polymarket’s geoblock list or named in its terms. We checked 35 by name against both, and Polymarket’s help page names Bulgaria as a country where travellers can keep trading. The other 104 are available under our coverage rule: no official document from Polymarket or a regulator restricts them, so we record them as available rather than unknown. Our geo-access test backs this up where it reached: the location check let us trade in all 28 available countries we tested.
Available means Polymarket’s own check lets you trade there, not that local law allows betting on events. Many of these countries treat prediction markets as gambling, and a new national order can move a country to limited, as it did for 12 countries since 2024.
Where do Polymarket’s visitors come from?
In both traffic estimators the United States and Brazil are among polymarket.com’s top three countries, although Polymarket sends Americans to its US exchange and refuses trades from Brazil.
Similarweb puts the United States first for September 2026 with 28.39% of visits, followed by Brazil, 
Hong Kong, Canada and Germany. Semrush counts 34.46 million visits for the same month and puts 
Bangladesh first at 20.17%, ahead of the United States, Brazil, Canada and Spain. For the separate US domain, Similarweb counts 91.86% of visits from the United States.
A visit is not a trade. Our geo-access test shows why restricted countries appear: polymarket.com loads everywhere, markets and prices included, and the block applies only when you try to trade. American visitors get a prompt to switch to polymarket.us or carry on in view-only mode. Bangladesh leading Semrush and missing from Similarweb is an estimator disagreement we cannot settle; Semrush also puts Bangladesh near the top for other platforms we track.
Polymarket geo-access test: what we saw from 60 countries
In our test polymarket.com loaded in all 60 countries we reached, and Polymarket’s location check refused trading in 16 of them; only the United States saw a message saying why.
We ran the test ourselves on 14 October 2026. A browser with a VPN connected to one country at a time and loaded the Polymarket home page in a fresh private window with no cookies. Cookie banners were hidden but never accepted, and bot checks were waited out, never solved. Each run saved the page text and a screenshot and read Polymarket’s own location check, the geoblock endpoint its docs describe, which answers whether an order from that address would be blocked.
All 60 places, 58 of our 195 countries plus Hong Kong and Taiwan, went through VPN servers located in the country. Virtual locations, an address registered to one country but hosted in another, are no use here: Polymarket’s check placed them in the country of the server, so we left them out.
BlockedUnited States · Home page
The United States: the only country where Polymarket said why, pointing to its separate US exchange
“Trading is blocked in the United States on polymarket.com.”
BlockedFrance · Home page
France, on Polymarket's own list: the markets load, but its location check answered blocked, with no message on screen
BlockedUnited Kingdom · Home page
The UK, also on the list: the same silent block, read from Polymarket's location check
BlockedSingapore · Home page
Singapore, a close-only country: the page loads and the location check returns blocked
Blocked
Taiwan · Home page
Taiwan, close-only on Polymarket's list, blocked the same silent way
BlockedSouth Korea · Home page
South Korea: not Polymarket's block but Cloudflare's, applied under a Korean government order
“HTTP 451”
No barrierSpain · Home page
Spain, where the gambling regulator ordered internet providers to block Polymarket: open through our VPN server
No barrierSwitzerland · Home page
Switzerland, on the Gespa blocklist since 2024: Polymarket itself does not refuse the visit
No barrierUkraine · Home page
Ukraine, where only the occupied regions are on Polymarket's list: no barrier through our Ukrainian server
No barrierBulgaria · Home page
Bulgaria, which no document restricts, loads with no barrier
No barrierSpain · Home page
Polymarket loads in our test, although the gambling regulator ordered it blocked in Spain
“The World’s Largest Prediction Market”
BlockedItaly · Home page
Italy: the markets load, but Polymarket's own location check answered blocked, with no message on screen
BlockedPoland · Home page
Poland, on Polymarket's close-only list: the geoblock check answered blocked
BlockedAustralia · Home page
Australia, on Polymarket's close-only list: the home page loaded with no barrier while the geoblock check answered blocked
No barrier
South Africa · Home page
South Africa: the home page loaded with no barrier
No barrierTurkey · Home page
Turkey, where a Milli Piyango decision of July 2026 blocked access: a Turkish VPN exit loads the page, since a national block need not show through a VPN
BlockedBrazil · Home page
The home page loads from a Brazilian address, yet Polymarket's own geoblock endpoint answered blocked
No barrierIndonesia · Home page
Polymarket loads from our test address, although Komdigi blocked polymarket.com on 22 May 2026
No barrierMexico · Home page
Mexico: the home page loads with no geoblock banner
“Largest Prediction Market”
No barrierArgentina · Home page
Argentina: the site loads through our VPN; the March 2026 court order is enforced by Argentine internet providers, which this test cannot see
BlockedBelgium · Home page
Belgium, on Polymarket's own list: the markets load, but its location check answered blocked, with no message on screen
No barrierPortugal · Home page
Portugal, where the gambling regulator ordered Polymarket blocked: open through our VPN server
BlockedIreland · Home page
Ireland: the page loads but Polymarket's geoblock check answers blocked
BlockedNew Zealand · Home page
New Zealand: the page loads but Polymarket's geoblock check answers blocked
No barrier
Norway · Home page
Norway: the page loads, ahead of the gambling authority's blocking notice
No barrierCzechia · Home page
Czechia, not on Polymarket's own list: the geoblock check let us through, although the Ministry of Finance has listed the site
No barrierRomania · Home page
Romania, blacklisted by the gambling regulator ONJN: the site still loads from our test address, so any block sits with internet providers
No barrierHungary · Home page
Hungary: the page loads from our VPN exit, although the regulator ordered Hungarian internet providers to block it in January 2026
No barrier
Finland · Home page
Finland: the page loads with no notice
No barrierGreece · Home page
Greece: the home page loads with no notice
No barrier
Croatia · Home page
Croatia: the home page loads with no notice
No barrier
Latvia · Home page
Latvia: the page loads with no notice
No barrier
Estonia · Home page
Estonia: the page loads with no notice
No barrierLithuania · Home page
Lithuania: the home page loads with no notice
BlockedSlovakia · Home page
Slovakia, on Polymarket's close-only list: the page loads and its location check answers blocked
No barrierSlovenia · Home page
Slovenia: the home page loads with no notice, although the terms of use name Slovenia
No barrier
Iceland · Home page
Iceland: the page loads with no notice
No barrier
Serbia · Home page
Serbia: the home page loads with no barrier
CRYPTORESTRICTIONSThe test does not decide a country’s status on its own: official documents come first, and a location check that says yes is not permission under local law. What it shows is how Polymarket enforces its list.
Three patterns stand out. The block is silent: in France, the UK, Germany and the other listed countries we reached, the markets loaded as normal and only the location check said no, so a visitor learns about the restriction when an order fails. South Korea is the exception, and not Polymarket’s doing: Cloudflare, which serves Polymarket’s site, returned an HTTP 451 page citing a Korean government order. And the terms go further than the check: Hungary and Slovenia are named in the terms, yet the location check let us trade from both.
The 23 restricted countries we did not test, Belarus and Russia among them, had no in-country server in our VPN. The full result for every country is below.
All 60 test results, country by country
Polymarket licences and registrations
Polymarket holds two licences, both in the United States and both for Polymarket US; we found none for the international exchange anywhere.
QCX LLC, trading as Polymarket US, is a designated contract market under a CFTC order of 9 July 2025, amended on 24 November 2025 to let brokers carry customer accounts. Its clearing house, QC Clearing LLC, is a registered derivatives clearing organization since December 2024, before Polymarket bought both. The international exchange is run by Adventure One QSS Inc. under the laws of Panama, according to its terms, and neither the terms nor the regulators we checked show a licence for it.
United States
- QCX LLC (Polymarket US): designated contract market, CFTC, since 9 July 2025.
- QC Clearing LLC (Polymarket Clearing): derivatives clearing organization, CFTC, since 17 December 2024.
Everywhere else
- Adventure One QSS Inc. (polymarket.com): no licence found, in the EU or elsewhere. ESMA reminded firms on 3 July 2026 that event contracts that count as financial instruments fall under national bans on selling binary options to retail clients, and that distributing them in the EU needs an investment firm authorisation.
Is Polymarket available in the US?
Partly: polymarket.com has refused US users since 2022, and Americans trade instead on Polymarket US, a separate CFTC-regulated exchange.
The split dates from a CFTC order of January 2022, which fined Polymarket’s developer, Blockratize, $1.4 million and made it wind down markets that did not comply with US law. Polymarket came back by buying QCX and its clearing house, and its US app launched in December 2025. We saw the split from the outside: from a US address, polymarket.com loaded with a prompt to go to polymarket.us. Unlike Kalshi, which has been a designated contract market since 2020, Polymarket US is a newcomer in a fight that has reached many states.
Polymarket US state by state
Polymarket US publishes no list of states it does not serve; its participant agreement lets it block any jurisdiction where trading is prohibited by law or by its own policy. Four states have action on record:
- Nevada: a state-court preliminary injunction of 29 May 2026 bars sports, election and entertainment contracts, in a case the Nevada Gaming Control Board filed in January (News 3 Las Vegas).
- Michigan: in an October 2026 agreement with the Michigan Gaming Control Board, approved by a federal court, Polymarket US stopped offering new sports contracts to Michigan customers and closes open ones by the end of 25 November 2026.
- Connecticut: a cease-and-desist order in September 2026 covers sports event contracts; we have not confirmed whether Polymarket complied.
- Missouri: a state cease-and-desist letter of 18 September 2026 covers sports event contracts; there is no court order and no notice that Missouri users are blocked.
New York’s attorney general sued Polymarket US on 24 September 2026 as an unlicensed gambling operation, and Polymarket answered with a federal lawsuit of its own. Press reports describe cease-and-desist letters and lawsuits in other states too; we record a state only once an order says what Polymarket must stop.
Polymarket’s US penalties and lawsuits
The 2022 order is still the only federal penalty. Federal investigators searched the chief executive’s home in November 2024, and the Justice Department and the CFTC closed their probes in July 2025, The Block reported, the same month the CFTC designated QCX. In October 2025 ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, agreed to invest up to $2 billion. Since then the fight has moved to the states.
Polymarket KYC and identity verification
Polymarket’s two platforms check different things: polymarket.com checks where you are and asks for no ID to trade, while Polymarket US checks who you are before you can deposit.
On polymarket.com you trade from a crypto wallet connected to the site. Its terms say Polymarket cannot access the wallet, and the only identity clause lets it ask for information to confirm you are not a restricted person. KYC applies in two corners only: the early-access Perps product, and server co-location for market makers, which its docs open to traders who complete a KYC or KYB form. Polymarket US is a regulated exchange, so its sign-up guide asks for your legal name, date of birth, phone number, residential address and Social Security number, and may add a photo ID and a selfie. You must finish KYC before you can deposit or trade.
The age limit is 18 on both, and Polymarket US also requires the age of majority in your state. Neither platform publishes verification tiers or limits.
Polymarket identity checks: history
Pressure on the international side has grown. In May 2026 the House Oversight Committee asked Polymarket in a letter whether international account holders face the same KYC as US ones. Days later, after reports that Polymarket had weighed mandatory identity checks, its engineering lead said no KYC was being added to polymarket.com and that the checks applied to the Perps beta only, CoinMarketCap reported. The August 2026 terms test residence, citizenship and location, which a wallet alone cannot prove.
What if Polymarket is restricted where you live?
It depends on the country: of the 21 other platforms we track, 17 are available in New Zealand and 16 in Brazil, but only one in Cuba, Iran and North Korea.
Getting around the block is not an option either. Polymarket’s terms forbid using a VPN or any similar tool to get past its restrictions, and say an account that does so can be put in close-only mode. What is left is a platform that is allowed to serve you where you live.
Among the other prediction markets we track, Kalshi is available in 7 of Polymarket’s restricted countries. Most of the remaining options are crypto exchanges and DeFi protocols rather than prediction markets. For the full picture in one country, start from its country page, linked in the lists above.
