India just pulled the plug on Polymarket. The country’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, known as MeitY, issued a formal blocking order against the prediction market platform on May 21, 2026, cutting off access at the ISP level for the world’s second-most-populous country.
Kalshi, the US-regulated prediction market that also accepts crypto deposits, is reportedly next in line. A blocking directive for Kalshi is expected by May 23, 2026.
A crackdown months in the making
This didn’t come out of nowhere. MeitY issued an advisory on April 25, 2026, that specifically named Polymarket and warned VPN providers against enabling access to blocked platforms. That’s a notable escalation: going after the tools people use to circumvent bans, not just the platforms themselves.
Then on May 1, 2026, India’s Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules officially took effect. The new framework reclassifies prediction markets as “money games,” placing them squarely under the country’s illegal online betting laws.
