Polymarket to take Dutch ban to court over gambling label
Polymarket will challenge the Dutch gambling regulator's ban in court, arguing its event contracts should be financially regulated.Summary
Polymarket plans to take the Dutch Gambling Authority (Ksa) to court over its decision to classify the platform as an unlicensed gambling service, reopening the dispute on Oct. 5 after a €420,000 enforcement penalty. Polymarket argues that its prediction contracts should fall under financial regulation by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), not gambling law. The Ksa imposed a weekly penalty of €420,000, capped at €840,000, for continued unlicensed operations in the Netherlands, and rejected Polymarket's administrative objection in June. Polymarket contends that its peer-to-peer trading model, where users trade positions on future events, resembles derivatives markets rather than traditional gambling, and points to U.S. regulatory treatment of similar products as binary options. The Ksa maintains that peer-to-peer prediction markets still constitute gambling under Dutch law and objects to the use of anonymous cryptocurrency payments. The case will focus on the Ksa's June decision and Polymarket's claim that its event contracts belong under financial-market regulation, with the Ksa's order remaining in force during the court challenge.
(Source：Crypto News)