January 15, 2025
By Our Correspondent
The Singaporean authorities have classified Polymarket as an “illegal gambling site” and have consequently restricted access to it within the city-state. As a result, individuals in Singapore attempting to access the crypto-betting platform are met with a notification from the Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) of the country.
“Polymarket is officially recognized as a gambling website in Singapore,” stated Alex Zuo, Vice President of Investment and Custody at Cobo Global, on X (translated from Mandarin Chinese), referring to the newly posted notice on the Polymarket.com website. “To place a bet, one must utilize a state-owned gambling entity; otherwise, one risks incurring fines and imprisonment.”
Indeed, Singapore enforces a penalty of SGD 10,000 or a maximum of six months in prison, or both, for individuals found guilty of gambling on unlicensed platforms. For operators of unlicensed gambling services, the penalty can reach SGD 500,000, along with a potential prison sentence of up to seven years. Repeat offenders may face even harsher consequences, with fines of SGD 700,000 and imprisonment for up to ten years, as outlined by the GRA.
“It is illegal for any individual to offer unlicensed remote gambling services within or from Singapore, or to individuals located in Singapore from outside the country,” the GRA specified on its official website.
Additionally, since January 1, 2025, Singapore has empowered its police force to block access to “unlawful remote gambling services, the promotion of such services, and related payment transactions.”
According to the Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA), authorities in Singapore have prohibited access to over 3,800 gambling websites and have halted 145,000 transactions totaling SGD 37 million since 2015.
In Singapore, the sole legal gambling entity is Singapore Pools, which provides various gambling options, including lotteries, sports betting, and horse racing. However, it does not offer contracts for political events, which have significantly contributed to the appeal of Polymarket.
Polymarket enables users to place bets on event contracts using cryptocurrencies and operates on the Polygon blockchain. It is not permitted to provide services to citizens and residents of the United States. Nevertheless, data from Similarweb indicates that more than 29 percent of Polymarket’s traffic originates from the US.
In November of the previous year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted a raid at the residence of Polymarket’s CEO, Shayne Coplan, confiscating his mobile phone. The Department of Justice is currently investigating Polymarket for allegedly permitting US users to engage in betting on various events.
Additionally, the cryptocurrency platform has restricted access for users in France following reports of an investigation into its compliance with local gambling regulations.
