France orders ISP block on Polymarket after traffic stayed high

France has widened its action against Polymarket, showing that crypto-based services can still face local shutdown pressure even when trading settles onchain. The country's gambling regulator, ANJ, ordered internet service providers on July 17 to block access to the platform's website after earlier restrictions failed to keep French users away.

ANJ said Polymarket recorded 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique visitors from France in June 2026, citing Similarweb. The regulator had already intervened in November 2024, when it contacted Adventure One QSS Inc., the company it identified as Polymarket's operator. Polymarket then added a geoblock that ANJ first described as preventing bets from France.

In its latest notice, ANJ said that control stopped financial transactions from French territory but was bypassed in practice. The homepage still showed live odds to a large French audience, which the regulator views as promotion of an unauthorized gambling offer.

The order targets access to Polymarket's website and interface, not the Polygon settlement contracts behind the platform. Polymarket describes its system as off-chain order matching with onchain settlement on Polygon. France's move shows where regulators can apply pressure: the front end, search visibility, and other operator-controlled parts that ordinary users rely on.