- Indonesia has blocked Polymarket, classifying it as an online gambling platform.
- The government says Polymarket operates as real‑money betting, violating Indonesian law.
- The move is part of a broader crackdown on online and speculative digital gambling.
The Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs has blocked access to Polymarket, claiming the website is an online gambling service masquerading as a prediction market.
The measure is part of the government’s larger endeavor to eliminate speculative digital betting in the country’s online environment.
Regulatory Action Against Polymarket Trading
The ministry explicitly classified the platform as an illegal online gambling service rather than a neutral forecasting tool.
According to the authorities, the platform is used to place direct and speculative monetary bets on the outcomes of real-world events.
Thus, those activities are in breach of a detailed national law on digital gambling, which strictly prohibits any digital gambling activity.
The government has been actively monitoring and pursuing several social media accounts associated with Polymarket across multiple platforms.
This integrated strategy helps to prevent access to sensitive young digital users across platforms.
The officials plan to close any additional channels that do not comply with primary domain restrictions.
Therefore, the state enforces these perimeter blocks to maintain total compliance within the sovereign internet infrastructure.
The regulators say domestic network service providers must adopt these deep packet inspection protocols “without delay”.
This results in an automatic local routing block if users try to access the node.
Global Precedents and the Polymarket Ban
Polymarket gained traction on Indonesian social media last week after a bet was taken on when Prabowo will be “out as president”.
His term ends in 2029.
The wager was begun on May 21, the day after Prabowo unveiled a big proposal to centralize control over Indonesia’s most valuable commodity exports, including coal and palm oil.
This year, investors have questioned Prabowo’s administration’s economic policies.
Indonesia takes steps similar to those of international regulators against Polymarket and other blockchain platforms.
These prediction markets are increasingly under close watch by international watchdogs due to compliance and consumer protection concerns.
The Indonesian government is trying to calm down the local crypto sector by eliminating risky speculative platforms.
Ministers emphasized that unregulated decentralized applications often bypass essential local financial protections and consumer safeguards.
This enforcement action, therefore, indicates a permanent shift in enforcement policies towards a stricter approach to algorithmic market surveillance.
The ban comes as Polymarket is aiming to make a major push into the prediction market space in Japan.
Future Enforcement Beyond Polymarket Links
Additionally, the digital ministry will collaborate with the national police to monitor and block similar services.
Agencies are aggressively searching the internet and looking for other prediction market-style gambling platforms for crypto assets.
Investigators plan to deploy advanced automated filtering tools to catch mirror sites immediately.
Officials strongly advised citizens to refrain from engaging in risky crypto speculative betting to avoid significant financial losses.
They cautioned about potential legal violations associated with these prohibited decentralized platforms.
Moving forward, the state demands absolute compliance from all foreign decentralized finance applications.
At the same time, the central bank will strengthen capital control measures to curb illegal remittance outflows.
