Germany's GGL Confirms Proceedings Against Polymarket and Kalshi

Germany’s gambling regulator opened administrative proceedings against Polymarket and Kalshi, and both platforms responded to its letters, spokesperson Franciska Quaiser told Vultax on 7 October 2026.

“We have opened administrative proceedings against both providers. Both have responded to our letters,” Quaiser wrote in German. The translation is Vultax’s.

The Joint Gambling Authority of the Länder, known as the GGL, says Polymarket has implemented geoblocking for Germany and parts of Kalshi are also geographically restricted. Prohibition orders or payment blocks have not been necessary so far, it said. It has not asked internet providers to block either website.

The reply gives an account of the regulator’s dealings with both platforms after its earlier public warning about Polymarket. It does not say when the proceedings began, identify the Kalshi markets covered by the restrictions or state whether either proceeding is now closed.

Vultax is operated by OmniOS OÜ in Tallinn. The reply forms part of our country-by-country reporting on prediction-market regulation in Europe.

Geoblocking restricts access according to a user’s location. The GGL describes restrictions on the platforms themselves and separately says it did not ask internet providers to block their websites. The email therefore establishes no German ISP blocking order against either site.

Polymarket’s own geographic-restrictions documentation, checked on 7 October, lists Germany among jurisdictions where users may close existing positions but cannot open new ones, on both its website and API. That describes Polymarket’s published policy; Vultax has not independently tested access from German networks.

For Kalshi, the GGL’s answer is narrower: some parts are geoblocked for Germany. It did not name those parts, give an implementation date or explain which users and contracts are affected. The reply does not establish that all of Kalshi is blocked.

The regulator also restated its position on bets on politics, elections, television shows and other social events offered through prediction markets: they cannot be licensed in Germany and constitute illegal gambling.

Its answer cites section 3 of the Interstate Treaty on Gambling 2021, the GlüStV 2021, and the treaty’s explanatory material. The GGL says sports and horse-racing bets are the types of betting eligible for a licence; other types are prohibited.

This is the authority’s existing legal position. In a public warning dated 5 September 2025, the GGL specifically named Polymarket when explaining that paid bets on social events could not be licensed. Today’s response adds the account of proceedings, replies and restrictions involving both Polymarket and Kalshi. It does not announce a new law or a new court ruling.

On 17 June 2026, nine European gambling regulators, including Germany’s, issued a joint statement on prediction markets. Vultax asked what joint action had followed.

The GGL said no joint measures had taken place yet, although it had exchanged information with other gambling authorities on the subject. That is the German authority’s answer about the joint initiative; it does not mean individual countries have taken no action.

In our separate Lithuania report, the Lithuanian regulator confirmed on 30 September that it was evaluating other prediction-market websites after blocking Polymarket. Germany’s response describes a different sequence: administrative proceedings, replies from both providers and platform restrictions, without the additional orders Vultax asked about.

Vultax sent four written questions on 30 September 2026. Franciska Quaiser, the GGL’s press spokesperson, replied on 7 October at 14:14 Tallinn time. We checked the original German reply against the sent questions, the GGL’s public warning, Polymarket’s geographic-restrictions documentation and the Swiss regulator’s record of the June joint statement.

The enforcement details in this story are attributed to the GGL. Its reply supplies no case references, start dates or description of the letters sent to the operators. We do not infer a fine, a court judgment or the closure of either proceeding.