Singapore’s Gambling Regulatory Authority has forced the country’s ISPs to block Polymarket over unlicensed gambling concerns. Polymarket is a decentralized prediction market platform, and although it claims to be different from traditional gambling, it has ruffled regulatory feathers in the city-state, prompting a crackdown.
Singapore’s GRA Blocks Polymarket
On January 12, users in Singapore who tried to access Polymarket reported being unable to connect to the platform. They were met with a warning message from the country’s Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA), which stated that Polymarket is an “illegal gambling site” operated by an unlicensed provider.
Created on August 1, 2022, the GRA oversees all forms of gambling in the small Asian country. It was created by the reconstitution of the Casino Regulatory Authority. This made a singular regulatory body capable of addressing evolving gambling products and services.
Investments and Custody vice president for Cobo Alex Zuo shared a screenshot of the official notice and commented on the situation. According to him, Polymarket is officially defined as a gambling website in Singapore. If somebody wants to place a bet, they must do so through the state-owned gambling company Singapore Pools, or face fines and jail time.
Interestingly, Polymarket’s front end can be accessed through a VPN routed to Singapore servers. In addition, according to some sources, some users can still get to the website if they do not use a major Singapore internet provider.
At the time of writing of this article, neither the GRA nor Polymarket have issued any official statements.
This Blocking Follows Previous Such cases
Singapore has been tightening gambling regulations and it seems Polymarket is yet another entity affected by this. In a Facebook post from December 30, the GRA wrote that it had blocked more than 3,800 gambling websites and 145,000 transactions amounting to $27 million, since 2015.
Polymarket’s blocking by the Singaporean regulator follows Polymarket’s exit from the French market, where the platform faced similar regulatory scrutiny.
This happened in November of 2024 after a trader placed $45 million in bets on Donald Trump’s presidential victory across multiple accounts. Two years earlier, in 2022, Polymarket had to settle with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for operating an unregistered derivatives trading platform. In addition, last week Coinbase notified customers it received a subpoena from the CFTC seeking account information tied to Polymarket.
Despite all this, the platform continues to see significant usage in the first two weeks of 2025. It has already recorded more than $430 million in trading volume, according to data from Dune Analytics. Of this, $15 million have come from wagers related to the Super Bowl Championship 2025, making that event have the largest market so far this year.