This was requested by the state gaming license authority, which sanction the betting business in France. Most of the business benefits the “Federation française des jeux”, the state gaming company.
Officially this was done out of concern for the safety of the French citizens.
Gambling regulations exist in most places in the world, including the US. With good reason.
French people were already forbidden from transacting on Polymarket and Kalshi, and the services themselves were forbidden to take any market orders. Nobody disagrees with the regulations.
But apparently the French government still thought it was so dangerous that they needed to block the websites completely to protect the French people from themselves. This is where the line is crossed. There wasn't even a court involved at all.
This happens all over Europe. The citizens give their governments the power to block things, or mass surveillance in the name of "safety" and then they just take everything and EU citizens are left wondering why.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_Uni...
The US government cannot compel ISPs to block websites. The only time it was tried was in 2022 to block some Israeli piracy site, and the federal court dropped the block within weeks after being hammered with first amendment lawsuits.
What we are seeing happening in Spain, France, and all across the EU, is literally impossible in the US.
Peter Dicks, David Carruthers
State violence is used to ensure compliance, so that companies self-censor.
Don't travel through the US.
I do wonder, was Polymarket given a chance to prevent itself from being accessed/used from Spain? They seem to be a-okay with blocking usage from US states that have asked them to cease operation, so I don't see why they would try to actively defy countries that have (legally) asked them to not do business there?