Polymarket Colombia: How the Block Actually Works

Polymarket Colombia is not a gray area to research — it is a platform Colombia's government has already ordered blocked. In late September 2025, Coljuegos asked the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (MinTIC) to add Polymarket to the national ISP blocklist over unlicensed betting on the 2026 presidential election, and MinTIC did. This page covers what that block actually reaches, what it doesn't, and why Kalshi — running the same kind of election contract — was never added to the list.

Legal status in Colombia

Colombia treats all gambling as a fiscal monopoly of the state under Law 643 of 2001, run nationally by Coljuegos and currently licensed out to roughly fifteen operators — Wplay, Rushbet, Betplay, Betsson, and Betano among them. Polymarket held none of that licensing. On September 24, 2025, the operator association Fecoljuegos petitioned Coljuegos to act against platforms taking bets on Colombia's 2026 presidential race, warning that unregulated election wagering invited manipulation of opinion trends and misinformation ahead of the vote. Coljuegos agreed, and around September 30–October 1, 2025 it asked MinTIC to add Polymarket to the blocklist MinTIC circulates weekly to Colombian ISPs under Circular 017 of 2025 — the same mechanism Coljuegos has used roughly 26,600 times against unlicensed gambling sites since it launched. Polymarket was added. Coljuegos president Marco Emilio Hincapié separately called prediction markets in general "apuestas disfrazadas de analítica" — bets disguised as analytics — but the actual blocklist action named Polymarket specifically; Kalshi, running the same kind of Colombian election contract, has never appeared on a published version of that list. The block is an ISP-level DNS/domain block enforced on Colombian networks, not a change Polymarket made to its own platform, and it has no bearing on whether Polymarket's contracts would ever qualify as a security under the Superintendencia Financiera's Registro Nacional de Valores y Emisores — that question has never been reached, because Coljuegos handled it as unlicensed gambling instead.

State gambling authority: Coljuegos (Empresa Industrial y Comercial del Estado), under the Ministry of Finance, holds the national gambling monopoly and requested the block; MinTIC enforces it through the Circular 017 of 2025 weekly ISP blocklist.

Colombia didn’t debate Polymarket in the abstract. Coljuegos asked MinTIC to add it to the country’s national ISP blocklist, MinTIC did, and on an ordinary Colombian connection the domain simply stops resolving. That happened in late September 2025, over unlicensed betting on Colombia’s 2026 presidential election, and it is still the case as of August 2026.

Is Polymarket Legal in Colombia? The Block, Not a Debate

Colombia runs gambling as a fiscal monopoly of the state under Law 643 of 2001, administered by Coljuegos and licensed out to roughly fifteen operators — Wplay, Rushbet, Betplay, Betsson, and Betano among them. Polymarket held none of that licensing. On September 24, 2025, the operator association Fecoljuegos petitioned Coljuegos to act against platforms taking bets on the presidential race, warning the practice invited manipulation of opinion trends and misinformation before the vote. Coljuegos agreed and, around September 30–October 1, 2025, requested that MinTIC add Polymarket to its blocklist. It went on. That single administrative act is the entire legal story — there was no court case, no hearing Polymarket appeared at.

The mechanism is Circular 017 of 2025. MinTIC circulates an updated blocklist to Colombian ISPs on a weekly basis, and Coljuegos has pushed roughly 26,600 sites through it against unlicensed gambling operators since the system launched. Polymarket is one entry on a list built for exactly this purpose, not a special case.

What the Block Actually Reaches

Circular 017 works at the Colombian network layer — ISPs stop resolving the domain, the same way DNS-level blocks work anywhere. It does not touch Polymarket’s own infrastructure, and Polymarket has not added Colombia to its own restricted-jurisdiction list the way it has for some other countries. That distinction shows up immediately for anyone who tries a VPN: routing traffic outside Colombia typically clears MinTIC’s block because Polymarket ’s own system isn’t the thing checking. It does not clear Coljuegos’s finding that the platform is unlicensed. A VPN changes what resolves, not what is authorized.

Is Polymarket Legit, Given the Block?

Worth separating from the legal question. Polymarket has settled enormous volume globally, including on elections comparable to Colombia’s, without a documented pattern of failing to pay a resolved market — that part of its record doesn’t change because one country blocked it. Whether Colombia treats it as a legitimate local product is a separate, already-answered question: Coljuegos called it unlicensed gambling and had MinTIC block it. Being a functioning exchange elsewhere and being cleared for Colombian residents are not the same fact, and only the second one is false here.

Why Not Kalshi, Running the Same Contract?

This site’s Kalshi Colombia page covers the mirror image: Kalshi ran the same kind of contract on the same 2026 election, got quoted constantly in Colombian political coverage, and never appeared on a published MinTIC blocklist. Nothing in Coljuegos’s public reasoning turns on a legal distinction between the two platforms — Fecoljuegos’s original complaint and Coljuegos’s block request named Polymarket specifically, most likely because it carried more visible Colombian election volume at the time. Coljuegos president Marco Emilio Hincapié has described prediction markets as a category — “apuestas disfrazadas de analítica”, bets disguised as analytics — without adding a second name to the actual list.

Is It Safe to Use From Colombia?

Reaching Polymarket from Colombia now means going around a government blocklist, not a gray area you can wait out. There is no Coljuegos license behind a Colombian account, no consumer-protection framework, and no local regulator to bring a dispute to if a market settles in a way you disagree with or an account gets frozen. Circular 017 is a weekly, administrative list rather than a court order, so it can be updated in either direction without new legislation — but nothing as of August 2026 signals Coljuegos is reconsidering. Trading event contracts can lose the full stake regardless of the legal status, it is not a way to make money, and in Colombia right now it is also not a legally reachable one.

Polymarket Colombia — Frequently Asked Questions

Is Polymarket legal in Colombia?

No. Coljuegos, which holds Colombia's national gambling monopoly under Law 643 of 2001, asked MinTIC to add Polymarket to its Circular 017 blocklist around September 30–October 1, 2025, over unlicensed betting on the 2026 presidential election. MinTIC did. There is no license Polymarket holds and no court ruling that reopens access.

Does the MinTIC block actually stop someone from reaching Polymarket?

It stops ordinary access. Circular 017 requires Colombian ISPs to download and apply an updated blocklist weekly, so polymarket.com does not resolve on a standard Colombian home or mobile connection. It does not touch Polymarket's own systems — the platform hasn't added Colombia to its own restricted-jurisdiction list, so the block is entirely on Colombia's network side, the same design as the roughly 26,600 other sites Coljuegos has had MinTIC block this way.

Is Polymarket legit, even though Colombia blocked it?

As an exchange, yes in the sense that matters globally — Polymarket has settled large volume on elections and other events without a record of failing to pay resolved markets. As a product cleared for Colombian residents, no: Coljuegos treated it as unlicensed gambling, not a legitimate local offering, and that finding is what triggered the block. Those are two different claims, and only one of them favors Polymarket here.

Why did Colombia block Polymarket but not Kalshi?

No public explanation distinguishes them on legal grounds — both run the same style of event contract, and neither holds a Coljuegos license. Fecoljuegos's September 2025 complaint and the resulting Coljuegos request to MinTIC named Polymarket specifically, most likely because it carried more visible Colombian election activity at the time the complaint was filed. Kalshi has continued to run the same kind of contract on the same election without appearing on a published MinTIC blocklist.

Is it safe to use a VPN to reach Polymarket from Colombia?

A VPN typically defeats the ISP-level block, since Circular 017 blocks by domain at the Colombian network layer rather than through anything Polymarket's own platform checks. That routes around Coljuegos's order, not around it legally — there is no Coljuegos license, no consumer-protection framework, and no local regulator to appeal to if a contract dispute or account issue comes up while using it.

Could Coljuegos eventually remove Polymarket from the blocklist?

Circular 017's list is a weekly, administrative mechanism, not a fixed court order, so it can change in either direction without new legislation. Nothing announced as of August 2026 suggests Coljuegos is reconsidering the Polymarket listing, and the same monopoly law that got it added would apply just as directly if Coljuegos decided to add other prediction-market platforms later.

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