Czechia Blocks Kalshi: Internet Providers Have Until 15 October

Vultax found the entry in the ministry's published list on the day it was made. No news outlet had reported it when Vultax searched on 1 October.

• No objection was received - A website is entered when the ministry does not uphold an objection or "receives no objection (which is also the case here)", the Ministry of Finance told Vultax on 2 October 2026.
• Assessed as illegal gambling - Asked whether such contracts could fall under financial-markets law, the ministry answered that had the offer "not been assessed as an (illegal) gambling game, these websites would not have been blocked".
• Kalshi is on the Czech blocklist - The Ministry of Finance entered kalshi.com on its List of Unauthorised Internet Games on 30 September 2026.
• Providers must block it from 15 October - The Gambling Act gives internet providers until the fifteenth day after an entry.
• Polymarket went first - polymarket.com was entered on 13 July 2026 on the same legal ground, 79 days earlier.
• Only the website is covered - No Kalshi app or payment account is on the list.

The Czech Ministry of Finance answered Vultax's four questions on 2 October 2026. The reply came in Czech from Filip Běhal, Communication with the Media, in the ministry's Public Relations and Communications Department. Quotations are Vultax's translation; the two central sentences are also given in Czech.

No objection was received before kalshi.com was entered, the Ministry of Finance told Vultax. "The operator of the illegal gambling game has 15 days to lodge an objection," it wrote. "If the Ministry of Finance does not uphold the objection or receives no objection (which is also the case here), the website is entered on the List of Unauthorised Internet Games". In Czech: "Pokud Ministerstvo financí námitce nevyhoví či žádnou námitku neobdrží (což je i tento případ), tak dojde k zápisu internetových stránek na Seznam nepovolených internetových her".

The enquiry concerned kalshi.com. The reply does not name the operator. It answers for the 15 days before the entry and does not say whether either operator has challenged an entry since, which Vultax also asked.

Vultax asked whether a contract on a sports result or an election is a betting game under the Gambling Act or could fall under financial-markets law. The ministry answered in one sentence: "If the offer on the prediction markets you mention had not been assessed as an (illegal) gambling game, these websites would not have been blocked." In Czech: "Pokud by nabídka na Vámi zmíněných predikčních marketech nebyla vyhodnocena jako (nelegální) hazardní hra, tak by tyto stránky nebyly zablokovány." It did not mention financial-markets law.

The ministry declined to say whether other prediction-market websites are under review. "The Ministry of Finance does not comment on its search activity or on any pending proceedings to block websites," it wrote. "In general, if a website with a gambling game for which the operator has not been granted a permit is accessible in the territory of the Czech Republic, the game is illegal. In such a case the operator exposes itself to the risk of a sanction and blocking."

The reply also names who acts first. The Customs Administration, which supervises gambling, checks a website and verifies whether illegal gambling is offered through it, then passes that information to the Ministry of Finance. After an entry, providers must prevent access "from the 15th day at the latest", which the ministry describes as DNS blocking. For the reference of the entry, it pointed to its public page on blocking, which carries the list and the notices cited below.

kalshi.com is the last line of the 258-page list dated 30 September 2026, and the last of 21 entries made that day. The head of the ministry's gambling-regulation department signed the document at 08:14 that morning.

The ground is section 84a of the Czech Gambling Act. The ministry enters a website on the list, the Act says in Vultax's translation, because "a prohibited internet game is operated through it". polymarket.com was entered on the same ground.

The ministry announced the entry in advance. Its notice of 9 September, reference MF-144/2026/7303-69, named 22 website addresses it intended to list; kalshi.com is the last of them.

An operator has 15 days from such a notice to object, and the ministry may make the entry only once that period has passed and every objection filed in time is dealt with. For Kalshi the period ended on 24 September. The list does not show whether an operator objected; the ministry's answer of 2 October is above.

Internet access providers must prevent access to a listed website from the fifteenth day after its entry at the latest. For kalshi.com that is 15 October 2026.

The payment ban does not apply. It covers payment accounts entered on the list, and the list holds no Kalshi account and no Kalshi app. Of its 3,596 entries, 3,577 are websites, 13 are apps and six are payment accounts.

With Polymarket, blocking began before the deadline. The Czech technology site Lupa.cz reported on 16 July, three days after the entry, that Vodafone's fixed network and T-Mobile's mobile network were already blocking polymarket.com.

The list has grown fast this year: 1,330 entries between 1 January and 30 September 2026, against 700 in all of 2025. polymarket.com and kalshi.com are the only prediction markets Vultax found on it. It has no entry containing the names PredictIt, Manifold, Limitless or Myriad, and none for the Betfair or Smarkets betting exchanges.

The lawful route is a licence. An internet game needs a basic permit from the Ministry of Finance, and its operator must have its seat in the Czech Republic or another EU or EEA state. Kalshi's exchange is run by KalshiEX LLC, a US company regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Czechia now lists both of the largest prediction markets. Spain blocked both in May, and network tests show its block depends on the provider: Polymarket is blocked in Spain, but on Orange 98% of tests still load. Lithuania blocked Polymarket in September and told Vultax it is evaluating others: Lithuania is evaluating other prediction markets after blocking Polymarket.

Vultax downloaded the ministry's list as of 30 September 2026 in both published forms, the signed PDF and the CSV, and counted its 3,596 entries by type and by date of entry. It read the notices of 24 June and 9 September and sections 84a to 84f of the Gambling Act. Polymarket's own list of restricted countries, checked on 1 October, does not name the Czech Republic. OONI, the open network-measurement project, held no test of either site from a Czech network between April and September 2026, so how fully the blocks are applied has not been measured. The ministry's answers of 2 October 2026 came by email in Czech, written under each of Vultax's four questions.