Polymarket Takes Dutch Gambling Regulator to Court Over Its Ban
Polymarket is challenging the Dutch gambling regulator's ban in court, arguing its prediction market should be regulated as financial derivatives.Summary
Polymarket is taking the Dutch gambling regulator to court to overturn a ban on its prediction market in the Netherlands. The company argues that its event contracts are financial derivatives and should fall under the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) rather than the gambling regulator, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA). The KSA had ordered Polymarket to stop serving Dutch users by January 20 or face fines of €420,000 ($471,000) per week, up to €840,000 ($943,000). After Polymarket implemented IP blocking on February 18, a day after the deadline, the KSA deemed the penalty forfeited and moved to collect it in May. Polymarket's objection, which noted that users trade via an open-source blockchain protocol with no house and outcomes settled by an oracle, was rejected on June 23. The KSA cited Polymarket's own help center, which describes the platform as a way to "profit from your knowledge by betting on future events," and noted that Dutch law prohibits betting on non-sports events and crypto payments. Legal experts give Polymarket little chance, pointing to a 2015 ruling that a service can be both a financial product and gambling. The Netherlands joins other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, in treating Polymarket as unlicensed gambling, and the KSA has warned that a revenue-based fine could still follow.
(Source：Bitcoin News)