Leading prediction platform Polymarket has been blacklisted by the Romanian National Gaming Authority (ONJN). According to Romanian regulators, this betting website is operating in the country and carrying out gambling activities without a valid license from the required authorities.
“The decision to blacklist Polymarket is not about technology, but about law,” ONJN President Vlad Christian Soare said in a statement. “When you bet money on future outcomes under comparable wagering conditions, whether you bet on lei or virtual currency, we are talking about gambling that requires a license,” Soare said, adding that regulators will not allow platforms to convert blockchain into screens to carry out illegal gambling activities.
Founded in 2020, Polymarket is a polygon-based prediction market headquartered in Manhattan, New York. This allows individuals to bet on future events including economic indicators, awards, political and legislative outcomes. The platform allows users to deposit USDC through the Polygon blockchain network. The platform became even more popular after it accurately predicted Donald Trump as the winner of the US presidential election. More than $3.3 billion was earned in election bets.
Romanian regulator blacklists Polymarket
Romanian regulators say they understand that Polymarket is often considered an “event trading platform” and meets the definition of what it considers “counterparty betting,” but users are still placing bets against other users and future events determine the outcome.
“Accepting the idea that a system of ‘counterparty betting’ can be called a ‘trading’ creates a dangerous precedent, allowing any operator to ‘reinterpret’ counterparty betting activities as stock exchange activities and circumvent strict gambling and capital markets regulations,” the regulators wrote.
Romanian regulators were particularly concerned about the increased activity in prediction markets during Romania’s local elections. For example, regulators claimed that Polymarket’s marketplace, which asked users to predict the mayor of the capital Bucharest, had more than $16 million in trades. Earlier this year, election markets on the platform also generated more than $370 million in total trading volume.
International monitoring and POLY token launch
Polymarkets are also attracting scrutiny around the world for similar reasons. Last year, France’s National Gambling Authority announced plans to ban the platform following an investigation into its compliance with French gambling law. “Regulators are currently investigating.” [Polymarket’s] Not only in compliance with French gambling laws, but also in operations,” a report in French news outlet The Big Whale said at the time.
The platform was also effectively banned in the United States after being fined by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2022. But in July, the company acquired derivatives exchange QCX and received a no-action letter from regulators, effectively allowing the forecasting platform to resume operations in the United States. Polymarket recently received a $2 billion investment from Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange.
Meanwhile, Polymarket plans to launch POLY tokens and airdrops. As previously reported by Cryptopolitan, Polymarket CMO Matthew Modabber confirmed the plans in an interview. “There will be tokens, and there will be airdrops.” […] You could always activate the token if you wanted, so it’s about how thorough you want to be about it. We want it to be a token that has real utility and longevity, and will exist forever. “That’s what we expect of ourselves and I think everyone in this space expects of us,” he said.
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