Australian Regulator: Polymarket Already Blocked, No Prediction Market Operator Has Applied for a License

Sarah Court, Chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), said at a parliamentary hearing on Thursday that the agency has not yet received any applications from prediction market operators. She noted that such platforms may face gambling regulation in Australia rather than financial market regulation, and that any operating license application would face strict scrutiny.

Court said that the trading mechanism of prediction markets is similar to binary options, which Australia has already banned, featuring an all-or-nothing outcome, and that the underlying assets are often unrelated to investments or financial markets. She also noted that although Australian users can directly access relevant overseas platforms, they are not protected by local financial regulation and have difficulty obtaining measures such as dispute resolution and client fund protection.

In August of this year, the Australian Communications and Media Authority required internet service providers to block the Polymarket website and classified it as an illegal online gambling site. (Bloomberg)