Romania's National Office for Gambling (ONJN) has blacklisted the prediction market platform Polymarket, labeling it an unlicensed gambling operation operating outside state oversight. The decision, announced in early November 2025, was driven by a surge in crypto-based betting during Romania's presidential and local elections, where trading volumes reportedly exceeded $600 million.
ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare stressed that the move is "not about technology, but about the law," emphasizing that whether bets are made in lei or cryptocurrency, they qualify as gambling and must be licensed. The regulator identified Polymarket's model as "counterpart betting," where users wager against each other on future events, with the platform taking a commission, and cited violations including lack of fiscal reporting, player protection mechanisms, and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) oversight.
Romanian internet providers are now required to block access to Polymarket. This action parallels global regulatory challenges; in 2022, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Polymarket for operating unregistered derivatives markets, forcing it to block American users, and regulators in Belgium, France, Poland, Singapore, and Thailand have imposed similar restrictions.
Despite these setbacks, Polymarket has continued to expand, recently securing a $2 billion investment from Intercontinental Exchange, parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, valuing the firm at around $9 billion. The platform is preparing to resume limited trading in the U.S. by the end of November 2025, focusing initially on sports-related markets, following its acquisition of derivatives exchange QCX and a no-action letter from the CFTC.
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