Polymarket to Contest Dutch Gambling Ban and €420,000 Penalty in The Hague

Polymarket is taking its fight with the Dutch Gambling Authority (Ksa) to court. The US prediction platform will challenge the Netherlands’ ban and a €420,000 fine, the company told Financieele Dagblad.

Read more NFL

The KSA ordered Polymarket to stop operating in the country back in February, saying it was running a gambling site without a licence. The regulator also blocked access to the US site and threatened the company with a penalty of €420,000 a week and up to a maximum of €840,000.

Polymarket has come out to disagree with this label. The company argues it is not a gambling operator at all but a financial product, and that the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (AFM) should oversee it, not the KSA.

Case follows failed appeal and attempt at legalization

Polymarket’s latest court move comes after it already lost one round in the Netherlands. In June, the Dutch Gambling Authority (KSA) rejected an appeal from Adventure One QSS Inc., the company behind Polymarket. 

The decision, published on June 23, held that the platform’s markets still fall under Dutch gambling law. The ruling left the door open for enforcement if the operator fails to meet local licensing rules.

At the centre of that appeal was Polymarket’s claim that it runs as an open-source blockchain protocol where users trade directly with each other rather than place traditional bets. The company also argued that prediction markets can look like financial products instead of gambling services. Dutch regulators were not convinced. In their view, users are still staking value on uncertain future events, and chance plays a decisive role in the outcome.

The KSA concluded that blockchain infrastructure and cryptocurrency payments do not change the legal nature of the activity.

Just weeks ago, the debate reached Dutch politics. MP Nagip Al Biyati addressed prediction markets, noting that platforms such as Polymarket are treated as illegal gambling under current law, even though they claim to operate as financial markets.

Read more NFL

He warned that banning them outright without a regulated alternative risks pushing users to unlicensed foreign platforms. His motion asked the government to study whether prediction markets could be regulated under a new subcategory of gambling law. State Secretary Claudia Van Bruggen declined to support the proposal in its current form, pointing to the KSA’s clear view that these offers constitute gambling.

Polymarket continues European prediction market push

The suit also comes as Polymarket works to win over regulators across Europe. The New York-based platform wants to be seen as a financial services group rather than a gambling operator, a shift it believes will open the door to international growth, according to FT.

Meetings have already taken place in London, Brussels and other EU capitals, where Polymarket has argued that its activities should fall under financial services law instead of scattered local gambling rules.

Across Europe, most regulators have kept their doors closed to prediction markets, including France, Germany and Italy. But the picture is not entirely static. Gibraltar has adopted a world-first dedicated regulatory framework for prediction markets. Malta has hinted at moving in that direction.

The operator has also begun direct talks with the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Commission. People familiar with the effort say the company has also met regulators in individual member states, aiming to secure a licence that would let it operate legally across Europe.

ESMA chair Verena Ross met two US-based members of Polymarket’s legal team in June, joined by a Paris lawyer from A&O Shearman and a Brussels lobbyist from Hanbury Strategy. The following day, Polymarket executives sat down with FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi.

The FCA has recently signaled it may review rules on retail investor access to prediction markets, though it maintains that its ban on binary options is “appropriate given the speculative, gambling-like nature of these contracts and the high risk of consumer harm.”

Read more Yaspa Wins Payment Solution of the Year at SBC Awards 2026