Spain Joins Growing Global Crackdown on Polymarket and Kalshi Over Missing Gambling Licenses

Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Rights temporarily banned Polymarket and Kalshi on Tuesday, ordering internet service providers to block access to both platforms after determining they were operating in the country without a gambling license. The decision, published in Spain’s official state gazette, opened disciplinary proceedings against both U.S.-based companies.

Spain’s gambling regulator, the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), said the platforms breached local rules by lacking mandatory administrative authorization. The ministry cited the absence of safeguards for minors and self-excluded gamblers as aggravating factors, noting that licensed Spanish operators are required to implement self-exclusion registries, deposit limits, and age verification systems. ISPs must comply with the blocking order within roughly seven to ten days. The ban is expected to last three to four months while the investigation concludes.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

Spain is now the third European jurisdiction to act against the platforms this year, following the Netherlands in February and Belgium in March. The pattern suggests an emerging European consensus to treat prediction markets as gambling products subject to existing licensing frameworks rather than novel financial instruments. Outside Europe, both Indonesia blocked Polymarket calling it “online gambling in disguise” last week, and India moved to restrict the platform earlier in May.

The international action comes as prediction markets face their most intense regulatory stretch since the 2024 U.S. election. Last week, the CFTC sued Minnesota hours after the state signed the nation’s first explicit ban on prediction markets. The House Oversight Committee opened an insider trading probe into both Polymarket and Kalshi the same week, and Kalshi unveiled a new lobbying group called Americans for Fair Markets in response. President Trump publicly defended the CFTC’s exclusive authority over prediction markets in a Truth Social post late Tuesday, calling state regulators “SCUM.”

The scale of what’s at stake explains the regulatory attention. Kalshi recorded roughly $5.9 billion in trading volume over the past 30 days, while Polymarket processed about $3.8 billion, per DeFiLlama data. Combined, the two platforms account for nearly 88% of the roughly $11 billion in trading volume across the sector’s top markets during the period. Bernstein projects sector volumes could reach $1 trillion by 2030. Neither Polymarket nor Kalshi had responded publicly to Spain’s order at the time of writing.