Singapore Restricts Access to Polymarket Due to Gambling Law.

Singapore’s playing regulation has blocked exposure to Polymarket, a questionable crypto estimates platform under investigation for its handling of U. S. election-related betting.

Reviews of users being denied entry initially emerged Sunday night, with Alex Zuo, opportunities and prison vice president for Cobo, tweeting a snapshot of a pop-up warning.

The Gambling Regulatory Authority ( GRA ) issues a warning message to users trying to access the platform from Singapore, claiming Polymarket to be an “illegal gambling site” operated by an unlicensed provider.

This is still the case at the time of reading, according to a picture that reviewed and verified by some Singaporean options.

Formal announcements from the GRA or Polymarket have not yet been made. Requests for comment were not promptly addressed by the GRA and Polymarket.

The front end of Polymarket can be accessed through a VPN that is routed to Singapore servers, according to internal tests. Decrypt was informed that they could still access the website, but it most likely did so because they didn’t work for a major Singapore company.

Estimates industry as gambling

The warning from Singapore’s GRA cites Section 20 of the country’s Gambling Control Act 2022, which threatens fines of up to$ 10, 000 or six months imprisonment for engaging with unlicensed gambling services.

Following a seller placing$ 45 million in wagers on Donald Trump’s presidential success across multiple accounts, Polymarket made the decision to stop French users and effectively enter the French marketplace in November of last year.

That walk was triggered by first investigations from European regulators, pre-empting the latter’s move.

In other areas, such as the U. S., regulation scrutiny over Polymarket has intensified beyond gambling monitoring.

Singapore’s walk follows the product’s complex regulation story, including a$ 1.4 million lawsuit with the CFTC in 2022 that led to blocking U. S. people.

An FBI raid on Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan’s New York apartment in November, which a company director characterized at the time as “political retribution”, has added another layer of discussion.

Next week Friday, the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission served Coinbase with a lawsuit, seeking user data related to Polymarket investing.

Despite regulation problems, Polymarket’s customer base continues to grow. The program recorded 349, 500 monthly active users in December, away from 293, 700 in November, according to statistics from Dune Analytics.