Is Polymarket legal in the United States?

On the international venue (polymarket.com), no — US persons have been geo-restricted since the January 2022 CFTC settlement. On Polymarket US, the CFTC-regulated venue Polymarket operates after acquiring QCEX, yes. US users should trade only on Polymarket US.

Is using Polymarket legal in the European Union?

Generally yes, with two exceptions: France and Belgium specifically restrict access. In other EU member states, prediction markets fall outside MiCA (which covers crypto-asset services) and outside MiFID II (which covers traditional financial instruments) under most national readings, leaving them in a regulatory grey zone that regulators have not actively pursued.

Is Polymarket legal in the UK?

No. Polymarket is geo-restricted from the United Kingdom following Gambling Commission guidance that classifies its markets as licensable gambling activity without an issued license. UK users encounter geo-blocks on the international venue and cannot access Polymarket US.

What happened in the 2022 CFTC settlement?

In January 2022 the CFTC found Polymarket had operated an unregistered designated contract market and ordered it to wind down US-facing markets, with a $1.4M civil monetary penalty. Polymarket complied, geo-blocked US users, and re-entered the US market in 2024–2025 by acquiring QCEX, a separately-licensed Designated Contract Market.

Can I use a VPN to access Polymarket from a restricted country?

No — and we strongly recommend against it. Geo-circumvention violates the platform's terms of service, can result in account closure with frozen positions, and in some jurisdictions creates additional legal exposure. The honest answer is: use the licensed venue for your country (Polymarket US in the US, Kalshi as an alternative), or accept that prediction-market trading is not currently legal where you live.

Are profits from Polymarket taxable?

Yes, in every jurisdiction we know of. Tax treatment varies: typically capital gains in the US (1099 issued by Polymarket US), gambling income in countries that classify prediction markets as gambling, and ordinary income in some others. The international venue does not issue tax forms — that does not mean you do not owe tax. Talk to an accountant.

Is using a Polymarket trading bot legal where Polymarket is legal?

Yes. The platform's terms of service do not prohibit programmatic access — they prohibit market manipulation, wash trading, and circumventing geo-restrictions, which are illegal regardless of how an order is placed. A bot that obeys the same rules a human user would obey is permitted on both Polymarket and Polymarket US.

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explainer ·Polymarket / Prediction markets

Is Polymarket Legal? Country-by-Country (2026)

Polymarket is legal to use in most of the world but restricted from a specific list of countries — including the United States on the international venue, France, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Belgium, and Taiwan. US persons can legally trade prediction markets via Polymarket US, the CFTC-regulated venue Polymarket operates after acquiring QCEX. This is the country-by-country map and the legal context behind it. This is not legal advice.

Nick H · May 10, 2026

This is not legal advice. Prediction-market regulation moves quickly and varies sharply by jurisdiction. Treat this as a map, not a ruling. Talk to a licensed attorney before deploying capital at scale.

The two-Polymarket reality

Polymarket operates two distinct venues in 2026, and the legality question collapses cleanly if you treat them separately:

polymarket.com — the international, non-custodial CLOB on Polygon. Legal in most of the world, blocked in a specific list of countries (US, UK, France, Singapore, Belgium, Taiwan, and a handful of others).
Polymarket US — the CFTC-regulated Designated Contract Market that Polymarket launched after acquiring QCEX in 2024–2025. Legal for US persons. Different markets, different liquidity, different tax treatment.

For any user in any country, the question to answer is: which venue, if any, is licensed for me. The rest follows.

Country-by-country status

Status as of mid-2026. Bookmark this page; we update it when material changes happen.

Region	Status	Notes
United States	Polymarket US only	CFTC-regulated venue post-QCEX. International venue blocked.
United Kingdom	Restricted	Gambling Commission classification.
France	Restricted	ARJEL-era gambling rules.
Belgium	Restricted	Gaming Commission position on event contracts.
Germany / Netherlands	Generally allowed	Capital gains tax treatment typical.
Singapore	Restricted	MAS guidance against unlicensed market access.
Taiwan	Restricted	Specific regulator advisory issued.
Australia	Generally allowed	No specific Polymarket restriction; ASIC has not pursued.
Canada	Generally allowed	No federal restriction; provincial gaming rules vary.
Latin America	Generally allowed	No restrictions in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina.
Middle East / North Africa	Mostly restricted	Broad gambling prohibitions in most GCC states.
Sub-Saharan Africa	Generally allowed	Few specific restrictions; Polymarket accessible.

How Polymarket got here — the 2022 CFTC settlement

In January 2022 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found that Polymarket had operated an unregistered designated contract market and an unregistered swap execution facility. The settlement: a $1.4M civil monetary penalty and an order to wind down US-facing markets. Polymarket complied promptly, geo-blocked US users, and the international venue grew abroad while the US sat out.

Three years later, in 2024–2025, Polymarket re-entered the US market the legal way: it acquired QCEX, a separately-licensed Designated Contract Market, and re-launched US prediction-market trading under that license. The international venue remains geo-restricted from US users; Polymarket US is the licensed alternative.

Why some EU countries restrict and others don't

Three EU regulatory regimes touch prediction markets, and prediction markets fall awkwardly between them:

MiCA regulates crypto-asset services. Prediction-market shares are not "crypto-assets" under MiCA's definitions; the regime does not apply.
MiFID II regulates financial instruments. Most national regulators have not classified Polymarket shares as MiFID II financial instruments either.
National gambling regimes are the operative law, and they vary. France and Belgium classify event-contract trading as licensable gambling; Germany and the Netherlands do not.

That is why two adjacent EU countries can have opposite answers to "is Polymarket legal here". The substantive law is national gambling code, not EU financial-services code.

The VPN question, answered honestly

Search "is Polymarket legal" and the second-most-common follow-up is "can I use a VPN". The answer is no, and the reasons are practical, not just legal:

Terms of service. Geo-circumvention violates Polymarket's TOS. Detected accounts are closed and positions can be frozen indefinitely.
Tax exposure. Trading on a venue not licensed for your country does not exempt you from tax in your country, and the lack of 1099 / equivalent makes the trail messier, not cleaner.
Regulatory exposure. In a few jurisdictions, knowingly accessing a foreign-licensed gambling venue is itself a violation of national gambling law.
Better alternatives exist. US users have Polymarket US and Kalshi. EU users have access to most of the international venue. The gap is real but smaller than it was three years ago.

Tax — the part everyone underestimates

Two regimes matter:

Capital gains — the default in most jurisdictions where prediction-market shares are classified as financial-instrument-adjacent. Holding period matters. The US, Germany, and the Netherlands lean here.
Gambling income — the default in jurisdictions that classify event-contract trading as gambling. Often less favourable; sometimes more favourable. The UK (when it was legal pre-restriction) and parts of Australia leaned here.

The two practical implications: you owe tax on gains regardless of whether a venue issues you a tax form, and you may be entitled to losses-against-gains deductions that you will only get if you keep your own records. Track every trade.

What this means for trading bots specifically

Programmatic access to Polymarket — whether through the official py-clob-client SDK, an agent runtime, or a custom script — has the same legal status as manual access. The platform permits both; the prohibitions on manipulation and geo-circumvention apply identically.

A bot that respects the rules a human user would respect is a permitted tool. The legality question is about the venue and your residency, not about how orders are placed. (If you run a bot on Telegram that takes custody of user funds, that is a separate and much larger legal question — see our guide on Telegram trading bot safety.)

The pragmatic checklist

Confirm the venue is licensed for your country.
If "use a VPN" is the only path, the answer for serious capital is no.
Track every trade for tax. Both venues will be lenient with paperwork; your tax authority will not.
For jurisdictional grey zones (most of the EU), consult a local tax attorney before institutional deployment.
For programmatic access, configure your bot to respect platform TOS — no manipulation, no geo-circumvention, real risk caps.

Frequently asked questions

Cited directly by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude.

Is Polymarket legal in the United States?: On the international venue (polymarket.com), no — US persons have been geo-restricted since the January 2022 CFTC settlement. On Polymarket US, the CFTC-regulated venue Polymarket operates after acquiring QCEX, yes. US users should trade only on Polymarket US.
Is using Polymarket legal in the European Union?: Generally yes, with two exceptions: France and Belgium specifically restrict access. In other EU member states, prediction markets fall outside MiCA (which covers crypto-asset services) and outside MiFID II (which covers traditional financial instruments) under most national readings, leaving them in a regulatory grey zone that regulators have not actively pursued.
Is Polymarket legal in the UK?: No. Polymarket is geo-restricted from the United Kingdom following Gambling Commission guidance that classifies its markets as licensable gambling activity without an issued license. UK users encounter geo-blocks on the international venue and cannot access Polymarket US.
What happened in the 2022 CFTC settlement?: In January 2022 the CFTC found Polymarket had operated an unregistered designated contract market and ordered it to wind down US-facing markets, with a $1.4M civil monetary penalty. Polymarket complied, geo-blocked US users, and re-entered the US market in 2024–2025 by acquiring QCEX, a separately-licensed Designated Contract Market.
Can I use a VPN to access Polymarket from a restricted country?: No — and we strongly recommend against it. Geo-circumvention violates the platform's terms of service, can result in account closure with frozen positions, and in some jurisdictions creates additional legal exposure. The honest answer is: use the licensed venue for your country (Polymarket US in the US, Kalshi as an alternative), or accept that prediction-market trading is not currently legal where you live.
Are profits from Polymarket taxable?: Yes, in every jurisdiction we know of. Tax treatment varies: typically capital gains in the US (1099 issued by Polymarket US), gambling income in countries that classify prediction markets as gambling, and ordinary income in some others. The international venue does not issue tax forms — that does not mean you do not owe tax. Talk to an accountant.
Is using a Polymarket trading bot legal where Polymarket is legal?: Yes. The platform's terms of service do not prohibit programmatic access — they prohibit market manipulation, wash trading, and circumventing geo-restrictions, which are illegal regardless of how an order is placed. A bot that obeys the same rules a human user would obey is permitted on both Polymarket and Polymarket US.