India moves against prediction markets, taking Polymarket offline while Kalshi could soon follow.

Polymarket, the world’s largest decentralized prediction market, has gone inaccessible in India, while reports suggest that Kalshi may be the next platform to face regulatory action.

Users attempting to access Polymarket are now greeted with a “This site can’t be reached” error, with repeated refresh attempts failing to restore access. The issue points to a likely nationwide block rather than a temporary outage.

The disruption follows an April 25 advisory issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which instructed VPN providers to restrict access to “illegal and blocked prediction market and online betting platforms.” The advisory noted that users were still managing to circumvent existing restrictions despite domestic prohibitions.

In line with this directive, internet service providers were ordered to block access to prediction markets, with Polymarket reportedly among the key platforms targeted for enforcement.

Kalshi, a U.S.-regulated prediction market overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), remains available in India for now. However, local media reports citing a source within MeitY indicate that authorities have already issued a blocking order for Polymarket and are preparing similar action against Kalshi in the near future.

Prediction markets allow users to speculate on the outcomes of real-world events such as elections, economic indicators, and policy decisions. The sector gained significant global traction during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, where it became a widely used tool for hedging and speculative trading.

In India, these platforms are classified as online money gaming and fall under restrictions outlined in the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, effectively prohibiting their operation in the country.

The government has taken a consistently strict approach toward cryptocurrencies and related digital asset services, emphasizing regulatory control and capital flow monitoring. India has also imposed a 30% tax on crypto gains along with a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on transactions, measures that have weighed heavily on domestic trading volumes.

Regulatory oversight has further intensified through Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CFT) requirements enforced via the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). This tightening environment has prompted several crypto firms to relocate operations to jurisdictions such as Dubai and Singapore.

Separately, India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance recently met with major crypto exchanges including Binance, WazirX, and ZebPay in Delhi on May 20 to review taxation and regulatory frameworks for the virtual digital assets (VDA) industry.

The committee also expressed concerns over significant capital outflows from India linked to crypto transactions.