France Blocks Entire Site After Failed Transaction Controls on Palimarket to Stop 578,751 French Visitors

The French gambling regulatory authority has ordered internet service providers to block access to Palimarket. This action goes beyond the geographical restrictions on transactions that had previously been imposed and, according to the authority, was effectively being circumvented.

According to Mihan Blockchain, the National Gaming Authority of France (Autorité nationale des jeux or ANJ) issued this order on July 17, 2026, arguing that the Palimarket website continues to promote an unauthorized gambling platform; even though the previous restrictions were intended to prevent financial transactions by users within France. The agency cited data from Similarweb, stating that the site attracted 578,751 visits and 205,057 unique visitors from France in June 2026.

These statistics clearly explain why France moved past the initial request to limit transactions by the operator and directly ordered internet providers in the country to block the main website.

This escalation also reveals a fundamental limitation regarding the idea of keeping on-chain markets insulated from national access: although settlements can occur freely on a blockchain, ordinary users still rely on websites and systems controlled by operators to discover markets and place their orders.

This escalation was not France's first intervention. In November 2024, the ANJ announced that it had contacted the Panamanian company Adventure One QSS Inc (identified as the operator of Palimarket) because the services of this platform constituted unauthorized gambling under French law. Following this, the company installed a geographical blocking system that the regulatory authority initially believed could prevent predictions from being placed from within French territory.

However, in the July 2026 announcement, the ANJ regarded the new order as the next step in the same case. The agency stated that while previous controls prevented financial transactions from French territory, in practice, ways to circumvent it were found, and the Palimarket homepage continued to display live odds for a large French audience.

A system that only rejects new transactions may reduce direct participation, but the site's role in attracting users and circulating prediction prices remains untouched. The ANJ emphasized that the dynamic updating of odds on the homepage has made it a primary channel for promoting an activity that they consider illegal.

French laws allow this agency to take action against such user interfaces. After going through legal notice periods, under Article 61, the ANJ can order internet providers to block access to illegal online interfaces and request search engines to stop referring to them.

The result of this law is a broader distribution sanction. Instead of waiting for the platform itself to decide to reject transactions, France directly pressures domestic networks and services that connect ordinary audiences to the platform.

The regulator's arguments show why displaying odds on the homepage is not a neutral and harmless issue for them: live prices act as a product marketing system, and the absence of identity verification systems, age control, and performance verification leads local authorities to consider it an inappropriate service for their users.

The documentation from Palimarket itself clearly delineates the line between "distribution and user interface" and "settlement on the blockchain." The current page lists the geographical restrictions of this platform, placing France in a "Close-only" status (only for closing positions) in both the front-end and API. Users in this category can close their existing positions but are not allowed to open new ones.

However, Palimarket describes its central order book as a hybrid system; off-chain orders are matched, while the final settlement occurs through a smart contract on the Polygon blockchain.

France's order targets access to the website and service user interface, not the separate settlement layer of Palimarket on the Polygon network. Nothing in this order indicates that France has disabled the smart contracts of this platform. Instead, the practical pressure from this country is focused on the centralized layers that make the product visible and usable for ordinary customers.

Gaining access to a wide audience depends on a familiar user interface, easy order placement, geographical eligibility checks, and compliance with regulations that allow users to interact with the product. Blocking by internet service providers (ISPs) directly disrupts this business pathway. On-chain settlement does not make the distribution of a product without a license; entry points remain where national regulators can exert influence.

Europe's reactions to these phenomena remain a patchwork of national measures and have not turned into a unified ban at the EU level. The ANJ has identified twelve jurisdictions in Europe, including: Germany, Belgium, Romania, Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic, that have restricted or blocked prediction markets.

This fragmented approach places prediction markets in a difficult position. Stricter geographical restrictions may reduce initial legal risks, but France's experience shows that limitations that only include "not conducting transactions" are not sufficient for authorities, as they consider the display of odds and audience access as part of the "gambling offer" process.

Palimarket's short-term test now is whether this platform will change its user interface, regulatory approach, or distribution model enough to maintain access for its general users in Europe. France has shown where the pressure lever lies: a regulatory authority does not need to change the settlement logic of a decentralized market; it is enough to make access to its website difficult and increase the cost of compliance with laws for serving ordinary users.

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