Spain Blocks Polymarket and Kalshi Amid EU’s Gambling Crackdown
- Spain’s Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) is set to block Polymarket and Kalshi within the next week.
- Polymarket faces weekly fines of €420,000 in the Netherlands following actions taken in February.
- Kalshi secured a $1 billion Series F funding round on May 7, backed by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
- European regulators are treating prediction markets as gambling, leading to increased enforcement actions across member states.
- The US CFTC asserts jurisdiction over prediction markets, contrasting with Europe’s regulatory approach.
Spain’s move to block Polymarket and Kalshi highlights a growing trend among European regulators to classify prediction markets as gambling activities, enforcing domestic rules due to the lack of an EU-wide framework. Meanwhile, the US takes a different stance with federal backing for these markets through the CFTC.
