Polymarket India: Banned by Law, Then Blocked by MeitY

Polymarket India is the one country page on this site where Polymarket did not restrict itself ahead of trouble. India banned the entire product category by statute, warned Polymarket by name through its own VPN providers, and only after the company kept onboarding Indian users anyway did the government order internet providers to cut it off directly. That is a different sequence than Japan, the UK, or Canada, where Polymarket moved first.

Legal status in India

India's Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (PROGA) — passed by Parliament in August 2025 and fully in force since May 1, 2026 — prohibits all "online money games" nationwide, a category defined broadly enough to fold in prediction markets even though the law never mentions Polymarket by name. Unlike most of the countries on this site's Polymarket pages, the company did not pull back on its own. On April 25, 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) sent a formal letter to VPN service providers warning that enabling access to "illegal and blocked prediction market and online betting platforms" could cost them their safe-harbor protection under the IT Act, and Polymarket was named as one of the primary targets. Polymarket kept accepting Indian users through that warning and past the May 1 statutory deadline. MeitY then invoked Section 69A of the Information Technology Act — the same power used to order network-level blocks on national-security or public-order grounds — and directed internet service providers to cut off Polymarket outright on May 21, 2026. Reporting at the time described a parallel order against Kalshi as imminent within days; Kalshi ultimately updated its own member agreement to restrict India on June 17, 2026, ahead of that order landing, which is the opposite sequence from what happened to Polymarket. ISPs that fail to comply with a Section 69A direction risk penalties of up to seven years in prison under the Act, so the block is not advisory. PROGA's own penalties target operators, promoters, and payment facilitators — up to three years and ₹1 crore for operating a banned money game, up to two years and ₹50 lakh for advertising one — rather than naming individual players, but between the statute, the VPN advisory, and the ISP-level block, there is no working signup path from India today.

State gambling authority: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) — issued the April 25, 2026 VPN advisory naming Polymarket and the May 21, 2026 Section 69A blocking order that cut it off at the ISP level. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 also establishes an Online Gaming Authority of India to classify games and handle enforcement going forward; no Indian regulator licenses prediction markets.

Every other Polymarket country page on this site tells some version of the same story: the platform restricts itself ahead of trouble, whether that’s Japan’s close-only frontend or the UK getting locked down before the Gambling Commission finished its guidance. India broke that pattern. Polymarket kept the door open here even after India’s government named it directly and warned the VPN industry against helping people reach it. The government closed the door instead.

Is Polymarket Legal in India? What PROGA Actually Banned

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 — PROGA — passed Parliament in August 2025 and took full effect on May 1, 2026. It bans “online money games” as a category: games of skill, games of chance, and anything mixing the two, with no carve-out written for event contracts. Prediction markets were never named in the text, but they didn’t need to be — paying to trade a Yes/No contract that may pay out or expire worthless falls squarely inside the definition Parliament wrote.

The timeline that led to the block:

August 2025 — PROGA passes Parliament
April 25, 2026 — MeitY warns VPN providers by letter, naming Polymarket among blocked platforms users were still reaching
May 1, 2026 — PROGA takes full nationwide effect; Polymarket keeps onboarding Indian users
May 21, 2026 — MeitY issues a Section 69A order; ISPs cut off Polymarket directly
June 17, 2026 — Kalshi, watching the same enforcement wave, restricts India on its own member agreement first

Why the Government Moved First Here

MeitY’s April 25, 2026 letter to VPN service providers wasn’t a generic warning — it named Polymarket specifically as one of the “illegal and blocked prediction market and online betting platforms” Indian users were still reaching, and it put the VPN providers themselves on notice that enabling that access could cost them their IT Act safe-harbor protection. Polymarket had a three-and-a-half-week window between that letter and PROGA’s May 1 deadline to restrict India the way it later restricted Japan or the UK. It didn’t. Accounts kept opening. MeitY responded with a direct Section 69A order on May 21, 2026, the same statutory power used to force ISP-level blocks on national-security or public-order grounds — and one that carries penalties of up to seven years in prison for an intermediary that fails to comply. That is a harder mechanism than the close-only frontend switches Polymarket has flipped on its own in other markets.

Kalshi read the room differently. Facing the same law and the same regulator, Kalshi updated its own restricted- jurisdiction list to add India on June 17, 2026 — before any Kalshi-specific blocking order was confirmed to have landed, even though reporting described one as imminent within days of Polymarket’s. Same statute, same ministry, opposite order of operations.

Is Polymarket Safe to Use From India With a VPN?

No, and the risk sits on both ends of that connection now. MeitY’s April 25 letter specifically threatens VPN providers with losing their safe-harbor protection for enabling access to platforms like Polymarket, which means a VPN route that works this week is not guaranteed to work next week. And on the trading side, an account reached through a blocked connection has no Indian regulator, no dispute process, and no Polymarket support obligation standing behind it if a position resolves badly or funds get stuck.

Is Polymarket Legit, Given It Kept Onboarding Users After the Warning?

Worth separating, the way this site treats every Polymarket country page. As a global exchange, Polymarket has settled huge volume on real-world events without a payout scandal attached to its name. That track record doesn’t change because of what happened in India. What does matter for an Indian reader is that Polymarket had a named warning and a statutory deadline and kept accepting Indian signups through both — a decision that reads less like an oversight and more like the reason MeitY escalated straight to an ISP-level order instead of waiting to see if the company would pull back on its own.

Polymarket vs Kalshi in India: Who Moved First

Kalshi never built a Japan-style problem for itself in India because it saw the enforcement wave coming and self-restricted on June 17, 2026, ahead of a company-specific order. Polymarket took the opposite path: named directly in an April warning, still open past the May 1 deadline, and shut down by direct government order three weeks later. Neither path leaves an Indian user with anything to sign up for today. This isn’t a sportsbook and it isn’t a way to make money — a position can resolve to zero the same as any other market, and right now there’s no legal way to open one from India regardless of which platform you mean.

Polymarket India — Frequently Asked Questions

Is Polymarket legal in India?

No. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 classifies prediction markets as prohibited "online money games," in force nationwide since May 1, 2026. MeitY followed that with a formal Section 69A order directing internet providers to block Polymarket specifically, effective May 21, 2026. There is no legal signup path from India right now.

Why did Polymarket get blocked instead of restricting itself, like it did in Japan or the UK?

Because Polymarket did not restrict itself here in time. On April 25, 2026, MeitY warned VPN providers by name that Polymarket was one of the platforms Indian users were illegally reaching, and Polymarket kept onboarding Indian accounts through that warning and past PROGA's May 1 deadline. The government moved next: a direct Section 69A blocking order on May 21, 2026, cutting access at the ISP level rather than waiting for the company to add India to its own restricted list.

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

No, on two fronts. MeitY's April 25, 2026 letter puts VPN providers themselves at risk of losing IT Act safe-harbor protection for enabling access to blocked prediction-market platforms, so a VPN that keeps working today may not tomorrow. And an Indian trader routing around a Section 69A order has no regulator, no dispute process, and no Polymarket support channel obligated to help if a position goes wrong.

Is Polymarket legit, given it kept accepting Indian users after the warning?

As a global exchange, yes — Polymarket settles enormous volume on real-world events without a payout scandal attached to its name. But continuing to onboard Indian accounts after MeitY's April 25 advisory named it directly is not a neutral fact; it is the reason the government escalated to a hard ISP block instead of the lighter frontend restrictions Polymarket has applied elsewhere. Legit as a company and compliant in India are two different questions here.

Can an individual in India be prosecuted for trading on Polymarket?

PROGA's criminal penalties — up to three years in prison and a ₹1 crore fine — are written to target operators, promoters, and payment facilitators, not individual players by name. That is narrower than a blanket ban on users. It does not, however, open a working path to trade: the ISP block already stops access before individual liability becomes the relevant question.

Polymarket vs Kalshi in India: what is actually different?

The order of events. MeitY blocked Polymarket directly on May 21, 2026, after the company kept accepting Indian users through a named warning. Kalshi saw that same enforcement wave coming and updated its own member agreement to restrict India on June 17, 2026 — before a Kalshi-specific order was confirmed to have landed. Same law, same regulator, opposite sequence: one platform got shut off, the other shut itself off first.

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