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Australia’s national online gambling regulator has declared Polymarket to be a prohibited service after completing a probe into the prediction market platform that included a formal warning to its U.S.-based owners.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) on Wednesday (August 13) listed Polymarket as a foreign website that targets Australian customers in violation of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.
The ACMA has requested that Australian internet service providers block Polymarket, and reserves the right to pursue its management through additional channels if the platform continues to take bets from Australia-based customers.
Summarising its probe into the gambling industry disruptor, the ACMA concluded that Polymarket’s cryptocurrency-based business model constitutes a wagering service that requires licensing by a state or territory government.
It said Polymarket had accepted Australian bets but obtained no such licence, while offering proscribed in-play betting services that are prohibited across Australia even for online wagering licensees.
In its formal warning to New York-based owner Adventure One QSS on July 2, the ACMA said Polymarket provided a “prohibited and unlicensed regulated interactive gambling service to customers physically present in Australia”.
The letter did not elaborate on the ACMA’s tools of reprisal if the parent company ignores the warning. The extra-territorial tools include requests for assistance from foreign government agencies responsible for regulation of the sector or other diplomatic means, as well as placing executives and board members on an immigration blacklist.
The online news service Crikey.com.au reported in late April that the ACMA was also investigating Polymarket over alleged payments to Australian or Australia-facing social influencers on TikTok and Instagram with more than 1m followers between them, and looking into whether the payments and the influencers’ promotional activities breached federal law.
Crikey reported that Polymarket had offered bets on the outcome of the Australian federal election in early May, including more granular wagers on the winning candidate in individual electorates.
However, the written warning to Adventure One QSS and the ACMA’s summary of the probe on its website make no direct reference to whether the alleged payments took place, nor if legal action would follow for social influencers, nor if any of these matters were part of the investigation.
The ACMA confirmed to Vixio GamblingCompliance on Thursday (August 14) that the Polymarket probe has concluded, but it declined to immediately confirm that the probe covered the allegations of payments to social influencers.
