Portugal forces Polymarket exit following illegal political betting

Ron

• 22 Jan 2026 • Reading time: 2 minutes

The Portuguese national gaming authority has ordered the crypto prediction market Polymarket to cease its activities in the country.

Polymarket operating without a license in Portugal

On January 20, the Portuguese gambling regulator, Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ), ordered Polymarket to cease its operations in the country within 48 hours. The regulator states that Polymarket does not hold a license to offer betting services to Portuguese residents.

According to it, placing monetary bets on political topics falls under the definition of games of chance, which are prohibited in this context in Portugal. Polymarket specifically provides markets where users wager cryptocurrency on the outcomes of elections and other societal events.

The enforcement action follows a striking increase in trading activity surrounding the Portuguese presidential election on January 18. In the hours preceding the official announcement of the results, over one hundred million euros in bets were placed on Polymarket markets predicting the election outcome.

A portion of these transactions occurred immediately before the results were known, raising questions among authorities regarding potential access to non-public information.

Regulator deems political trading prohibited

Portugal bases its decision on existing legislation that explicitly excludes political betting from permitted gambling activities. The law only authorizes sports betting, casino games, and horse racing; political gambling has never been included in these categories.

Although Polymarket operates via a decentralized system and utilizes cryptocurrencies like USDC for transactions, the SRIJ maintains that this does not alter its legal status.

The regulator gave the platform a 48-hour deadline to terminate its activities in Portugal. Following reports that the site remained accessible after the warning, the authority announced that internet service providers (ISPs) could be instructed to block access at the network level.

Unusual trading activity sparks suspicion

Trading volumes around the election drew particular attention because market odds for candidate António José Seguro shifted sharply just before the results were announced. According to observers, sudden price movements of this nature, occurring so close to public disclosure, suggest that some participants may have possessed information that others did not. This fueled the regulator’s concerns and accelerated the measures taken.

Portugal joins the growing list of countries that have already taken action against Polymarket. In Belgium, the platform is blocked and considered illegal. The site was blacklisted by the Belgian Gaming Commission last February.