Polymarket, the world’s largest decentralized prediction market, has gone offline for users in India, with reports suggesting that rival platform Kalshi could soon face similar restrictions.
Users attempting to access Polymarket are now met with a “This site can’t be reached” error, with repeated refresh attempts failing to restore connectivity, indicating a broader access block rather than a temporary outage.
The disruption follows an advisory issued on April 25 by India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which instructed VPN providers to curb access to “illegal and blocked prediction market and online betting platforms.” The advisory noted that users were still bypassing domestic restrictions to access such services despite existing prohibitions.
Under the directive, internet service providers were ordered to restrict access to prediction markets, with Polymarket reportedly among the primary targets of enforcement action.
While Kalshi—regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)—remains accessible for now, local media reports citing an anonymous MeitY source suggest it may soon be blocked as well. According to these reports, an order to restrict Polymarket has already been issued, with a similar directive for Kalshi potentially arriving in the coming days.
Prediction markets allow users to place real-money wagers on binary outcomes such as elections, financial market movements, and referendums. The sector gained significant global traction during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, where it became a widely used tool for speculation and hedging political risk.
In India, however, authorities classify such activity as online money gaming, placing it under a regulatory framework that is effectively prohibited under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025.
The government has maintained a cautious stance toward the broader crypto and digital asset ecosystem, prioritizing financial oversight and capital controls. New Delhi has also implemented stringent taxation measures, including a 30% tax on gains and a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on transactions, which critics say has significantly reduced domestic trading activity.
Regulators have further tightened supervision through Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CFT) compliance requirements enforced via the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). This regulatory pressure has contributed to an exodus of several crypto startups to more permissive jurisdictions such as Dubai and Singapore, as authorities continue to treat much of the sector as speculative rather than innovative financial infrastructure.
Meanwhile, India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance recently met representatives from major crypto exchanges including Binance, WazirX, and ZebPay in Delhi on May 20 to discuss taxation and regulatory oversight of the virtual digital assets (VDA) industry.
The committee also raised concerns over significant capital outflows from India through crypto-related channels.
