Italy orders prediction market site inaccessible; Lazio strips sponsor's logo from website and shirts as similar bans hit Turkey and France.Italy has blocked access to Polymarket for a second time, with the popular prediction market platform becoming inaccessible to Italian users from 27 July after the Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) added it to its blacklist of unauthorised gambling sites.The ADM considers the service comparable to that of a betting operator not authorised to operate in the Italian market, meaning users in Italy can no longer access the site's operational features, which has effectively been blocked following the regulator's order. The measure requires Italian network providers to prevent access to the site, redirecting users instead to an official ADM page explaining that the platform lacks the necessary authorisation.  Previous ruling This is not the first time the situation has arisen: the ADM had already attempted to block the platform in November 2025, though an appeal to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR) led to the site being reopened following a technical clarification. That earlier ruling had, at least temporarily, accepted Polymarket's argument that it was not a traditional betting operator but a prediction market in which users buy and sell shares tied to the outcome of future events. With its new order, however, the ADM has reaffirmed its position that the platform's activity falls within the scope of gambling and therefore requires proper authorisation. The administrative case has yet to be concluded, meaning there is still no definitive ruling on the platform's legal status. Lazio strips sponsor from official channels The renewed block has affected Rome-based Serie A football club Lazio. In April 2026, the club announced its partnership with Polymarket, which quickly became visible on the shirts worn by Lazio players towards the end of last season. The agreement, worth around €19 million, has been in place since April, with the branding appearing on the club's playing shirts. Since Monday, however, Polymarket's site has no longer been reachable from Italy, and Lazio have blacked out the sponsor from their official website. Searching the "sponsor and partners" section of the club's site now brings up an empty, deleted page. The club's official online shop has also been updated: fans can still buy the new shirts, but without any sponsor branding.  Salvatore Palella of Palcomm, the agency that brokered the deal between Lazio and Polymarket, wrote on social media that the suspension was not down to any breakdown in the relationship between the two parties, which he said remained excellent, but was rather a consequence of the new measures from the Customs and Monopolies Agency, in which both Lazio and Palcomm are involved. He added that Lazio had already received, and would continue to receive, financial compensation for the arrangement. Some media reports have suggested the partnership may now be terminated altogether, though the club has yet to confirm this formally. Wider European crackdown The dispute is not confined to Italy: in recent weeks Polymarket has faced similar blocks in France, Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands and several other European countries that treat the platform as equivalent to gambling. On 21 July, Turkey's national lottery authority, the Milli Piyango İdaresi, ordered that access to Polymarket be blocked in Turkey, a move reported by the newspaper Cumhuriyet, with the site now unreachable from Turkish territory. According to the specialist censorship-monitoring site EngelliWeb, the decision was taken over allegations of illegal betting offered through the platform. In the days before, France's gambling regulator had also ordered Polymarket blocked, citing among its reasons the promotion of an illegal gambling and betting offering. Gambling laws At the heart of the regulatory difficulty is Polymarket's hybrid nature, sitting somewhere between trading and betting. In Italy, any activity allowing money to be staked on future events generally falls under public gambling law and requires a concession from the ADM. Since Polymarket does not hold an ADM licence, it cannot operate fully on Italian territory, and even when the site is technically reachable, its trading functions are limited or unavailable to Italian users, who can at most consult the markets for informational purposes. Photo credit: Samuel Boivin / Shutterstock.com

Italy has blocked access to Polymarket for a second time, with the popular prediction market platform becoming inaccessible to Italian users from 27 July after the Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) added it to its blacklist of unauthorised gambling sites. The ADM considers the service comparable to that of a betting operator not authorised to operate in the Italian market, meaning users in Italy can no longer access the site's operational features, which has effectively been blocked following the regulator's order. The measure requires Italian network providers to prevent access to the site, redirecting users instead to an official ADM page explaining that the platform lacks the necessary authorisation.  This is not the first time the situation has arisen: the ADM had already attempted to block the platform in November 2025, though an appeal to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR) led to the site being reopened following a technical clarification. That earlier ruling had, at least temporarily, accepted Polymarket's argument that it was not a traditional betting operator but a prediction market in which users buy and sell shares tied to the outcome of future events. With its new order, however, the ADM has reaffirmed its position that the platform's activity falls within the scope of gambling and therefore requires proper authorisation. The administrative case has yet to be concluded, meaning there is still no definitive ruling on the platform's legal status. The renewed block has affected Rome-based Serie A football club Lazio. In April 2026, the club announced its partnership with Polymarket, which quickly became visible on the shirts worn by Lazio players towards the end of last season. The agreement, worth around €19 million, has been in place since April, with the branding appearing on the club's playing shirts. Since Monday, however, Polymarket's site has no longer been reachable from Italy, and Lazio have blacked out the sponsor from their official website. Searching the "sponsor and partners" section of the club's site now brings up an empty, deleted page. The club's official online shop has also been updated: fans can still buy the new shirts, but without any sponsor branding.  Salvatore Palella of Palcomm, the agency that brokered the deal between Lazio and Polymarket, wrote on social media that the suspension was not down to any breakdown in the relationship between the two parties, which he said remained excellent, but was rather a consequence of the new measures from the Customs and Monopolies Agency, in which both Lazio and Palcomm are involved. He added that Lazio had already received, and would continue to receive, financial compensation for the arrangement. Some media reports have suggested the partnership may now be terminated altogether, though the club has yet to confirm this formally. The dispute is not confined to Italy: in recent weeks Polymarket has faced similar blocks in France, Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands and several other European countries that treat the platform as equivalent to gambling. On 21 July, Turkey's national lottery authority, the Milli Piyango İdaresi, ordered that access to Polymarket be blocked in Turkey, a move reported by the newspaper Cumhuriyet, with the site now unreachable from Turkish territory. According to the specialist censorship-monitoring site EngelliWeb, the decision was taken over allegations of illegal betting offered through the platform. In the days before, France's gambling regulator had also ordered Polymarket blocked, citing among its reasons the promotion of an illegal gambling and betting offering. At the heart of the regulatory difficulty is Polymarket's hybrid nature, sitting somewhere between trading and betting. In Italy, any activity allowing money to be staked on future events generally falls under public gambling law and requires a concession from the ADM. Since Polymarket does not hold an ADM licence, it cannot operate fully on Italian territory, and even when the site is technically reachable, its trading functions are limited or unavailable to Italian users, who can at most consult the markets for informational purposes.