[NEWS]Argentina bans Polymarket for offering illegal gambling in the country

[bitbollo]

Nothing new, probably just matter of time.
The same happens also in Italy. they have been initially blacklisted and after a while "regulated" (aka taxed by monopoles).
for sure they can have a political support that brings clear results. I am not surprised also for the nature itself of the platforms that allow many different approaches (that are not just purely based on gambling).

[Fiatless]

The claim of leakage of insider information to Polymarket is certainly grave and may harm the trust of the people once proven. Full transparency should be insisted upon to obstruct the officials who cheat to make a fortune out of tariff information or any sensitive political issues such as that. Speaking specifically of minors, it is a fact that the complete blockade is not the most suitable option; making them enforce their identity checkup system (KYC) would be more appropriate. This would make their operations legal and in-compliance.

Senators in the US are pushing for a bill to restrict government officials from placing bets on prediction platforms. They deem it important because of the suspicion that insiders are benefiting from information they get from government officials. Parents have the responsibility of monitoring their children to ensure that they are not engaging in underage gambling. 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/senators-move-ban-prediction-market-234118827.html

[Haunebu]

Pointless actions. Many countries did the same in the past and literally nothing changed since there are multiple alternatives to accessing it based on what I observed. There are other sites like Kalshi etc which offer pretty similar markets with high liquidities.

The only way these sort of sites will truly go out of business is if the users themselves abandon it which won't happen anytime soon.

[qwertyup23]

The numbers will keep growing over the years, as the government has not figured out the right way to regulate prediction markets.
I dont know if it is true, correct me if I'm wrong. From my research, 30+ countries have restricted Polymarket from their country. Some are due to regulatory issues and illegal gambling, while some are because gambling is prohibited in the country.

But the question is, even if they ban Polymarket, can they really stop their citizens from accessing it?

I mean if people can use Polymarket without going through strict KYC, then anyone, even from countries where gambling is banned, can still find a way to use the platform. They’re probably just hoping that Polymarket doesn’t mess with them, because going up against an established prediction market with a lot of resources would be a tough legal battle.

I do not think that the government can absolutely prohibit the access of that website given that there are VPNs and other tools in order to access a restricted website. However, this would prevent at least a vast majority of the users from accessing it easily.

The goal is not to eradicate 100% of its access because we all know it’s impossible. The fact that they can keep at least majority of its users from such access is already a win on the part of the government.

Pointless actions. Many countries did the same in the past and literally nothing changed since there are multiple alternatives to accessing it based on what I observed. There are other sites like Kalshi etc which offer pretty similar markets with high liquidities.

The only way these sort of sites will truly go out of business is if the users themselves abandon it which won't happen anytime soon.

Unfortunately even with strict rules and regulations, enforcement is still an issue. This does not prevent users from using tools to hide their IPs and access the website.

Like what I mentioned above, it is impossible to prohibit all of its citizens to access that gambling website. But the fact that it can at least lessen its citizens from accessing that website is still a major win in my opinion.

[Questat]

Unfortunately even with strict rules and regulations, enforcement is still an issue. This does not prevent users from using tools to hide their IPs and access the website.

Like what I mentioned above, it is impossible to prohibit all of its citizens to access that gambling website. But the fact that it can at least lessen its citizens from accessing that website is still a major win in my opinion.

The fact that they don’t require KYC and only block certain locations where they’re banned makes using a VPN seem like an easy solution. However, we should still be aware of the risks. If they have a history of freezing accounts due to VPN usage, that could become a serious issue.

If there’s no such history, then users from restricted countries are technically still able to access the platform. At that point, the responsibility shifts to the user, since they are the ones potentially violating their country’s regulations, and it will still depend on how strictly those rules are enforced.

[Wakate]

I think their should be more countries banning this market because of their greed depriving players of their major wins. When a casino chooses to scam their players, the government need to step aside to correct the impression by limit their citizens from getting access to it.  There has been so many complaints about this platform but it looks like ordinary users can not fight them enough that is why they don't care anymore.

[mikel_012]

I think their should be more countries banning this market because of their greed depriving players of their major wins. When a casino chooses to scam their players, the government need to step aside to correct the impression by limit their citizens from getting access to it.  There has been so many complaints about this platform but it looks like ordinary users can not fight them enough that is why they don't care anymore.

And when polymarket scammed their players? I am not aware of anything like this

Many times the market resolved in a way because of the rules that are defined at the moment it was created. But many people do not read the rules and terms before betting

Can you share a story about this greed case of depriving players of major wins?

[suzanne5223]

...

As you said, time will tell, but if the PolyMarket team is serious about gaining more ground in the South American countries that don't joke with sports, etc., they need to do the right thing.

It seems to me that it is very clear and obvious that big companies from the United States and Europe do not seem to care much about whatever regulations smaller and less relevant countries have.
For example, there are online services (even unrelated to gambling) which comply with regulations and norms in the United States and Europe, but do not check whether they are operating within the laws a of south American countries, like mine.
It is taken for granted that if a service complies with EU and the USA, then they can offer whatever they have to offer in markets within the third world.

That is also the case with polymarket. They won't bother to check if there is something wrong with their service if the country of conflict is small and irrelevant.

It is taken for granted that once a gambling platform complies with EU and the US rules and regulations, other continent rules and regulations are not valid? If what you just said is true, then the problem is with the leader of the South American countries leader because no matter the country of origin of a gambling platform, more so if the platform wants to offer service outside the US soil, the platform must follow the new country's government gambling rules and regulations. Besides, it will also need a license in some cases if the platform's current license is not acknowledged by the new country of operation.

[X-ray]

But the question is, even if they ban Polymarket, can they really stop their citizens from accessing it?

The ban means nothing. There are hundreds thousand of people keep accessing Poly from the restricted countries. They did it by with a simple step downloading cloudflare VPN, then they bypass the IP censorship to the Poly by their regulators.

This is why IP censorsihp to Poly doesn't sound effective at all. If govt was realy serious about preventing Poly from extracting their citizen, they should take a legal action against it.

[darxiaomi]

Hi im from Argentina, its not for the whole country we are a federal country and this only goes (until now) for the Buenos Aires City because it was a court ruling from that specific juridisction.

The complainant is the lottery of the city and other guy related to the gambling on the capital so is basically an attemp from them to prevent "future" gamblers to go to other places and keep them in a cage, its not gonna work.

The news about the leak with privilege information in the "inflation market" are more false than true, when you look into the deep or liquidity of that market was pretty low like $1000 usd, a lot of people forget about the fact that in polymarket you need a counterpart to place more money against it. I think some employ can have privilege information and maybe put some into that market but it was super tiny like i said and that was used to weaponize this movement.

[Hispo]

But the question is, even if they ban Polymarket, can they really stop their citizens from accessing it?

...

This is why IP censorsihp to Poly doesn't sound effective at all. If govt was realy serious about preventing Poly from extracting their citizen, they should take a legal action against it.

Even if the government of Argentina was serious about suing the administration of Polymarket, it would be very difficult to convince a jury of any wrong doing by Polymarket. Since betting is not illegal in Argentina, it would be quite difficult to enforce Polymarket to stop chartering argentine people.

Hi im from Argentina, its not for the whole country we are a federal country and this only goes (until now) for the Buenos Aires City because it was a court ruling from that specific juridisction.

The complainant is the lottery of the city and other guy related to the gambling on the capital so is basically an attemp from them to prevent "future" gamblers to go to other places and keep them in a cage, its not gonna work.

The news about the leak with privilege information in the "inflation market" are more false than true, when you look into the deep or liquidity of that market was pretty low like $1000 usd, a lot of people forget about the fact that in polymarket you need a counterpart to place more money against it. I think some employ can have privilege information and maybe put some into that market but it was super tiny like i said and that was used to weaponize this movement.

Thank you!
I would have guessed that was actually a market with an important liquidity, since Argentina has been quite infamous for her persistent inflation, I thought we were talking about a betting market with a volume of millions of dollars, instead of just a couple of thousands...

[aoluain]

It just sounds like they dont like what Polymarket is offering.

TBH I dont care about this because I think Polymarket is designed to simply take money from
people by offering a lot of nonsensical betting opportunities, thats my oun opinion -
but on the other hand betting on what tru.p will say in his next meeting is a viable bet so if
the platform is to be prosecuted shouldnt all gambling platforms get the same treatment?

[Slow death]

Each country has its own laws, and for that reason I don't see anything to complain about. Now, this type of measure makes people in those countries use VPNs and continue using the site, and the government won't find out anything. In my opinion, the best way is to regulate this sector and charge low taxes. That way, people won't use the site without the government knowing, and the government will benefit from it and receive tax money. I don't know why some governments don't think this way.

[Yaunfitda]

Each country has its own laws, and for that reason I don't see anything to complain about. Now, this type of measure makes people in those countries use VPNs and continue using the site, and the government won't find out anything. In my opinion, the best way is to regulate this sector and charge low taxes. That way, people won't use the site without the government knowing, and the government will benefit from it and receive tax money. I don't know why some governments don't think this way.

Most countries are against gambling, because they know that it's going to hurt their people in the long run. But there is a caveat, there are government that allows land base casinos because they've make huge taxes from them. On the other hand, if they can't control Poly or any other prediction market, then obviously, they are going to go after them and shut them down for good because they can't make any money out of them. So that is the case here, Poly is getting bigger, maybe billions in every prediction and someone is raking big money from behind. But the government can't do anything about it and not able to put taxes on the services and the people that are winning so it's better for them to just ban them and called them illegal.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

Let's even forget about the country sound or affected in this manner, but let's focus more on the implication of gambling on poly market, this is extremely outrageous and most of us don't like taking a risk to that extent, prediction market is not what we should consider to the extent and be playing if we want to be more responsible and Gamble the right way, the price for it may be amazing but the risk as well is more than what we think we want to earn from it.

[Kelward]

From the article that is shared in the OP it is clear that the major reason for Argentina, ban of Polymarket is due to regulation issues not that they are against the prediction market. I guess that as soon as Polymarket complys with their regulations they will be given access to operate in their country, so the country's concern is mostly about receiving their share of revenue from the prediction site. As for the concern of insider trading it is a concern for most people who sees it as a bad precedence in the prediction market. Prediction market has come to stay and I believe that in the future the sites will reach agreements with governments that banned them.

[coinrifft]

From the article that is shared in the OP it is clear that the major reason for Argentina, ban of Polymarket is due to regulation issues not that they are against the prediction market. I guess that as soon as Polymarket complys with their regulations they will be given access to operate in their country, so the country's concern is mostly about receiving their share of revenue from the prediction site. As for the concern of insider trading it is a concern for most people who sees it as a bad precedence in the prediction market. Prediction market has come to stay and I believe that in the future the sites will reach agreements with governments that banned them.

That's pretty much the reasons why government doesn't like Polymarket, it's unregulated which means anything can happen like manipulation in which we seen in the past. I don't think that Polymarket though will comply. They've established their platform in the beginning without any regulations whatsoever, and speculators started to like it. If there will be regulations then it's going to be a very different market then. They might not even listed anything that might go with the politics. So I guess Polymarket will be fine even if Argentina bans them for good.

[danherbias07]

The numbers will keep growing over the years, as the government has not figured out the right way to regulate prediction markets.
I dont know if it is true, correct me if I'm wrong. From my research, 30+ countries have restricted Polymarket from their country. Some are due to regulatory issues and illegal gambling, while some are because gambling is prohibited in the country.

But the question is, even if they ban Polymarket, can they really stop their citizens from accessing it?

I mean if people can use Polymarket without going through strict KYC, then anyone, even from countries where gambling is banned, can still find a way to use the platform. They’re probably just hoping that Polymarket doesn’t mess with them, because going up against an established prediction market with a lot of resources would be a tough legal battle.

I guess that's the loophole in that ban. Even if they say they are banning it, they cannot stop people from accessing it using VPN or other ways just to log in.

But there could be problems when it comes to depositing money. If a country bans such a gambling site or prediction site, it can restrict deposits using the local currency. Still, another loophole is there, which is cryptocurrency, and if a prediction site offers options of cryptocurrency, the user will be undetected even if it's already banned in their country.
I guess it's just a warning to their countrymen to avoid using those kinds of websites for their betting needs. For their own safety and security. Also, it's a good way to tell people that they have their own betting sites that are regulated by the government.

[viljy]

Well, it's right that they banned it. Let Coplan buy a license for its activities. Passing off gambling as some kind of "prediction market" is a scam. What exactly is a "forecast market"? Is it like fortune-telling or spiritualism? What an absurdity. As for insider betting, the Polymarket was created specifically for this purpose. Another purpose of the Polymarket is to be a platform for money laundering. This is an even better and more convenient way to legalize money than antiques trading or auctions. For me, this Shayne Coplan is just a skinny version of SBF, but otherwise the same... He's just not in a prison cell yet, but he'll be there eventually.

[o48o]

The numbers will keep growing over the years, as the government has not figured out the right way to regulate prediction markets.
I dont know if it is true, correct me if I'm wrong. From my research, 30+ countries have restricted Polymarket from their country. Some are due to regulatory issues and illegal gambling, while some are because gambling is prohibited in the country.

You don't need much research for this, as they are documenting all geoblocked regions / countries themselves.

And while people think it's easily to be bypassed with VPN, know that polymarket might not be interested to look closer until you win significant amount of money. Then they might be legally obligated to ensure that they aren't moving money to citizens of blocked countries or enabling money laundering. They might take the risk and rather pay fees for it like Binance did, but personally wouldn't risk it.

And while you might feel scammed when your money gets frozen when it's finally significant amount, there are no laws defending you on this as you were the one breaking the law of your own country.