Argentina blocks Polymarket amid global crackdown on prediction markets

Argentina is now part of a growing list of over 30 countries that have shut Polymarket, as the prediction market platform faces on several fronts, from suspected data to people placing on whether world leaders will live or die.

A court in Buenos Aires the national telecoms regulator, ENACOM, to get internet providers on board to carry out the block. Google and Apple to Polymarkets app for Argentine users.

when gambling LOTBA and the Argentine Chamber of Casinos and lodged formal complaints. A dedicated gambling prosecutors office the

Investigators foune platform was essentially a betting operation while calling itself something else. regulators pointed to payments made in deposits via credit card, and checks on age or identity, leaving the door open for underage users.

What made the ban stand out was the timing. Local media reported that Polymarket‘s odds on Argentina’s February inflation figure, which came in at 2.9%, shifted noticeably just 15 minutes before the government published the data. raised questions about whether someone had the numbers early.

Colombia pulled the plug on Polymarket last year. The Netherlands followed last month.

Back in the US, Kalshi and Polymarket have been doing business, with over $44 billion changing hands between them in the past year. Nine out of ten bets on Kalshi are sports-related, but the range of markets goes well beyond that.

People have $12 million on whether the US will confirm alien life before 2027, and $45 million on whether Jesus Christ returns this year.

Both platforms prominence when they Trumps 2024 election win ahead of the polls. They are now said to be investment that would value them together at $20 billion.

Nothing has caused more trouble than the war markets. Bloomberg Polymarket‘s Iran-related betting $500 million. At one point, the platform was taking bets on a nuclear strike, a market it shut down once it started getting attention online, according to Cryptopolitan’s report.

Kalshi pulled a $54 million market over whether Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be out of power by March 1, US-regulated platforms have no business running markets that “directly settle on someone’s death.”

Stew, 35, from Montana, had $10 riding on that Khamenei market. He got the idea one night after coming across reports of a surge in pizza orders near the Pentagon. He got his money back when Kalshi cancelled the market, but he wasn‘t buying the company’s reasoning.

“They call it contract trading, which I guess technically speaking, that‘s what it is. But if we’re all being honest here, its still betting,” he told BBC.

Craig Holman from Public Citizen didnt mince words. “You have now opened up gambling on almost anything and it has turned into this very, very gruesome type of thing on the death of a head of state,” he said.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats have pushed a bill to bar government officials from trading event contracts. They pointed to one case where someone new to Polymarket walked away with close to half a million dollars after correctly betting on the arrest of Venezuelas president, shortly before news broke publicly.

Meanwhile, a simple five-minute Bitcoin bet on Polymarket pulled in over $60 million in one day, per Dune Analytics. Kalshi runs the same idea over 15-minute windows. There are no spreads or complicated odds, just a yes or a no, which suits people put off by how traditional sports betting works.

The CFTC dropped its proposed ban on sports and election contracts last month. The regulators Trump-picked chairman has backed the platforms, calling event contracts economically useful. But those pushing for tighter rules say the industry is hiding behind financial language to dodge the rules and taxes that betting companies normally have to deal with.

“Nobody is saying that gambling shouldnt be allowed,” said Ben Schiffrin of Better Markets. “What the states are saying iings that are gambling should be regulated as gambling.”