The Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit has directed Polymarket to stop offering its services in the Netherlands, concluding that the cryptocurrency-based prediction platform was operating without a license. The formal decision, dated January 20, 2026, and updated on February 17, requires the company to cease unlicensed remote gambling activities within four weeks or face financial penalties.
Under the order, noncompliance will result in a penalty of €420,000 ($493,968.30) per week, capped at €840,000 ($987,936.60). The regulator determined that Adventure One QSS, the company behind Polymarket, had been providing gambling services in breach of the Dutch Betting and Gaming Act. Article 1(1)(a) of the law prohibits offering games of chance without prior approval.
Supervisors conducted checks on July 10, 2025, November 12, 2025, and January 7, 2026. They found that users in the Netherlands could access the website using a Dutch IP address, register through an email verification process, deposit funds, place wagers, view potential winnings, and withdraw accumulated balances. No technical measures blocked access from within the country.
During a November 12 inspection, a supervisor deposited €10 ($11.76) via Mastercard through a Dutch bank. Payment instructions appeared in Dutch, and the account balance reflected the transaction. The supervisor placed a $1 wager on a contract titled “Next Prime Minister of the Netherlands,” selecting “Yes” on a named candidate.
A separate January 2026 check involved a $1 position on a contract related to the swearing-in date of a new Dutch cabinet. Contracts referencing Dutch political events are illegal to trade, including for operators licensed for other gambling activities.
The regulator cited additional indicators linking the platform to the Dutch market, including acceptance of euro deposits, payment routing through a Dutch bank, Dutch-language AI chat support, and the absence of the Netherlands from the excluded jurisdictions listed in the terms of use. It also noted that certain betting markets concerned Dutch political events.
Polymarket disputed the characterization of its activities as traditional gambling. “Polymarket is a prediction market where users trade positions with each other; pricing and settlement come from market dynamics and protocol contract logic, not from a chance mechanism designed by the operator,” Polymarket said.
“The result is not purely chance, but (also) the product of informed decision-making and active trading choices,” it added. The company also argued that the cited elements showed only passive accessibility to Dutch users and were “insufficient” to demonstrate active targeting.
The regulator rejected those arguments, stating that the determining factor is whether participants compete for a benefit based on an uncertain future event beyond their predominant control. It concluded that the contracts function as wagers on external events and therefore qualify as games of chance under Dutch law.
“Prediction markets are on the rise, including in the Netherlands. These types of companies offer bets that are not permitted in our market under any circumstances, not even by licence holders,” said Ella Seijsener, director of licensing and supervision at the KSA.
“Besides the social risks of these kinds of predictions — for example, the potential influence on elections — we conclude that this constitutes illegal gambling. Anyone without a licence has no business in our market. This also applies to these new gambling platforms.”
The platform, launched in 2020 and initially based on Ethereum before migrating to Polygon, has faced regulatory challenges in multiple jurisdictions. In January 2022, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposed a $1.4 million civil penalty and required Polymarket to wind down certain markets and implement compliance measures for offering event-based binary options contracts without proper registration.
More recently, regulators in Nevada and Massachusetts have questioned whether sports and event contracts constitute illegal betting, and France’s l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux geo-blocked the platform in late 2024 for illegally offering online gaming.
Original article: https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2026/02/19/117681-dutch-regulator-orders-polymarket-to-halt-operations-over-unlicensed-gambling
