\n Spain\u2019s DGOJ ordered ISPs to block Polymarket and Kalshi for operating without gambling licenses, joining the Netherlands, Belgium, Indonesia, and India. <\/p>\n
\n Posted May 27, 2026 at 6:11 am EST. <\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s Ministry of Consumer Rights temporarily banned Polymarket and Kalshi on Tuesday, ordering internet service providers to block access to both platforms after determining they were operating in the country without a gambling license. The decision, published in Spain\u2019s official state gazette<\/a>, opened disciplinary proceedings against both U.S.-based companies.<\/p>\n Spain\u2019s gambling regulator, the Direcci\u00f3n General de Ordenaci\u00f3n del Juego (DGOJ), said the platforms breached local rules by lacking mandatory administrative authorization. The ministry cited the absence of safeguards for minors and self-excluded gamblers as aggravating factors, noting that licensed Spanish operators are required to implement self-exclusion registries, deposit limits, and age verification systems. ISPs must comply with the blocking order within roughly seven to ten days. The ban is expected to last three to four months while the investigation concludes.<\/p>\n This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.<\/p>\n Subscribe here to get these updates in your email for free<\/p>\n Spain is now the third European jurisdiction to act against the platforms this year, following the Netherlands in February and Belgium in March. The pattern suggests an emerging European consensus to treat prediction markets as gambling products subject to existing licensing frameworks rather than novel financial instruments. Outside Europe, both Indonesia blocked Polymarket<\/a> calling it \u201conline gambling in disguise\u201d last week, and India moved to restrict the platform earlier in May.<\/p>\n The international action comes as prediction markets face their most intense regulatory stretch since the 2024 U.S. election. Last week, the CFTC sued Minnesota<\/a> hours after the state signed the nation\u2019s first explicit ban on prediction markets. The House Oversight Committee opened an insider trading probe<\/a> into both Polymarket and Kalshi the same week, and Kalshi unveiled a new lobbying group called Americans for Fair Markets in response. President Trump publicly defended the CFTC\u2019s exclusive authority over prediction markets in a Truth Social post late Tuesday, calling state regulators \u201cSCUM.\u201d<\/p>\n The scale of what\u2019s at stake explains the regulatory attention. Kalshi recorded roughly $5.9 billion in trading volume over the past 30 days, while Polymarket processed about $3.8 billion, per DeFiLlama data. Combined, the two platforms account for nearly 88% of the roughly $11 billion in trading volume across the sector\u2019s top markets during the period. Bernstein projects sector volumes could reach $1 trillion by 2030. Neither Polymarket nor Kalshi had responded publicly to Spain\u2019s order at the time of writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s DGOJ ordered ISPs to block Polymarket and Kalshi for operating without gambling licenses, joining the Netherlands, Belgium,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15243,14882,14881,17,15244],"class_list":["post-30562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-crypto-prediction-markets","tag-kalshi","tag-polymarket","tag-spain","tag-yahoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}