The Czech Ministry of Finance added prediction market platform Polymarket to the country's list of unauthorized internet games earlier this week, making it the latest European jurisdiction to move against the platform over unlicensed gambling.
The listing, published July 13 by the ministry's Department of Procedural Agendas and Gambling Regulation, places Polymarket among other domains the government considers to be operating outside the country's gambling framework.
Internet service providers must block access to the platform within 15 days of its publication on the list under Czech gambling law. The Institute for the Regulation of Gambling highlighted the ministry's decision in a press release on Tuesday.
"This is not about banning innovation," Jan Řehola, director of the Institute for the Regulation of Gambling, said in the release. "It's about ensuring that the same rules apply to everyone who offers betting for money."
The Czech Republic joins a growing list of jurisdictions that have restricted access to Polymarket. According to the Institute for the Regulation of Gambling, the platform has already been restricted or blocked in Germany, Belgium, Romania, Switzerland, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, and Ukraine, while Brazil also took similar action this year.
