India is preparing to formally block prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi as authorities ramp up enforcement against services deemed illegal under the country’s new online gaming framework.
According to a senior government official cited by ThePrint, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has already issued a blocking order against Polymarket and is expected to issue a similar order against Kalshi as early as Friday.
The two platforms being disputed are still operating despite the Government of India previously issuing multiple warnings and many restrictions; The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has repeatedly issued notices to VPN providers alerting them that users were able to access “illegal or blocked prediction market and online betting platforms” even though they were prohibited from doing so in India.
While it was expected that internet service providers (ISPs) would restrict access to these platforms, reports from India suggest that users of those platforms have continued to be able to register & trade both prediction markets.
Also, the argument made by the government is that prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket are not a legal type of platform under Indian law because individuals who place wagers on such platforms do so with the use of real money in order to predict the outcome of future events.
Intermediaries that do not comply with government orders to block access may be liable to fines and up to seven years imprisonment.
According to Policy Expert Deepro Guha from The Quantum Hub, enforcing the blocks may be challenging due to the growing use of mirror sites; blocked platforms usually re-enter the market within days by registering with new Internet domain names and providing an identical copy of page content as before.
Guha also argued that the legal classification of prediction markets is relatively clear. “It’s the definition of betting. There’s no other way to get out of that,” he said.
