Romania blocks Polymarket! Providing gambling services without a license, blockchain is not an umbrella for illegal gambling

The Romanian National Gambling Office (ONJN) has placed the prediction market platform Polymarket on the domestic blacklist on the grounds that the platform provides gambling services to the public in Romania but has not obtained a legal operating license issued by ONJN.
(Previous summary: You treat Polymarket as a casino, but smart money is using it to make crazy arbitrage)
(Background supplement: Polymarket returns to the United States, where is the next opportunity for prediction markets?)

Contents of this article

On October 30, the Romanian National Gambling Office (ONJN) officially transferred Polymarket, the world’s largest decentralized prediction market platform It was included in the domestic blacklist on the grounds that the platform provides gambling services to the public in Romania but has not obtained a legal operating license issued by ONJN.

The core of the violation: Betting rather than trading, blockchain is not a golden ticket

ONJN clearly pointed out that Polymarket allows users to place bets on "real-world events" such as political elections, sports events and even corporate financial statements, which is a typical "counterparty betting" rather than a simple financial transaction.

ONJN Chairman Vlad-Cristian Soare emphasized: "Whether you use lei or cryptocurrency, as long as you bet on the outcome of future events in the form of bets, it is gambling and must be operated with a license. Blockchain technology cannot be a protective umbrella for illegal gambling."

The iron fist of the law: state monopoly, without a license it is illegal

According to Romania's Gambling Law (Government Emergency Ordinance No. 77/2009), the gaming industry is a state exclusive enterprise. All remote gaming platforms must obtain a Class 1 license or they may not provide services to Romanian residents.

ONJN data revealed that Polymarket experienced a "surge in activity" during the national elections in May this year: betting on the presidential election exceeded US$600 million; betting on local elections in Bucharest reached US$15 million.

Consequences of the blacklist: total blockade, payment disconnection

After being blacklisted:

• ISP mandatory blockade: All Romanian Internet operators must block the Polymarket domain name within a reasonable period.
• Transactions are prohibited by payment institutions: banks and e-wallets are not allowed to handle fund transactions related to the platform.
• User risk: If you continue to use VPN to bypass betting, you may face administrative fines or account freezes.

It is worth mentioning that Romania is not the first country to take a heavy blow against Polymarket: France required Polymarket to geo-block French users at the end of 2024; Belgium also declared the platform illegal in February this year; and in the United States, Polymarket was fined $1.4 million by the CFTC for failure to register as early as 2022 and then withdrew. However, with Trump taking office, the regulatory environment in the United States has become more relaxed, and Polymarket It has returned to the U.S. market, and even after conducting multiple financings, it was once rumored that it would be listed on the U.S. IPO and issue its own cryptocurrency.

Extended reading: Polymarket "valued at 8 billion magnesium" received US$2 billion in investment from Intercontinental Exchange, ICE rose 3.7% before the market opened