# Is Polymarket Legal in My Country? Kalshi and Polymarket, Place by Place
A directory of 302 places with what Kalshi's member agreement and Polymarket's documentation say about each, kept apart from local law. Guides for the US, Canada, the UK and India, with more to come.
Canonical URL: https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality
Author: [Vultax Research Team](https://vultax.com/editorial-policy#who)
Published: 2026-10-30
Last public revision: 2026-10-30
AI-assisted drafting, research and editing. Published by OmniOS OÜ. [How we use AI](https://vultax.com/editorial-policy#ai)
Published research snapshots and calculations; these exports do not contain current quotes or live account data. Observation windows and populations are stated in the source captions and methodology. Missing metadata is unknown, not zero. Records what Kalshi's member agreement and Polymarket's documentation said on 30 October 2026. A venue's list is its own policy, not a finding about local law, and a place it leaves off is not a place where trading is lawful. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.
## Key figures
- Places in the directory: 302 — 249 countries and territories with an ISO code, the 50 US states and the District of Columbia, Kosovo and the European Union
- Places on Kalshi's restricted list: 55 — Section VI of Kalshi's member agreement, version of 1 October 2026; the list last changed on 22 June 2026, when India was added
- polymarket.com restriction groups: 3 — Blocked; close-only on the website and the API; close-only on the website only. Polymarket's help page groups the same places differently
- Places with a Vultax guide: 7 — The United States, California, Texas, Washington, Canada, the United Kingdom and India, each with its own sources checked date
## The short answer
There is no worldwide answer. Whether you may trade on Kalshi or Polymarket depends on three separate things: the law where you are, what the exchange's own terms allow from there, and which of the three products you mean.
The venues' terms are the easiest part to read, and this directory records them for 302 places. Kalshi's member agreement lists 55 countries where trading its event contracts is restricted. Polymarket's documentation lists the countries where polymarket.com is blocked or allows only closing positions. Neither list is a statement of local law. A place a venue leaves off its list may still ban prediction markets, and India is the clearest case: neither of Polymarket's lists names it, yet the Indian government says polymarket.com is blocked there.
Where Vultax has looked at the law itself, the place has a guide, linked from its row. Guides are added in batches, and each says when its sources were last checked.
## Kalshi, polymarket.com and Polymarket US are different products
Read 30 October 2026 from each venue's own documents. These are the venues' rules, not findings about any country's law.
| Product | Operator and footing | Where its geographic rules are written |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kalshi event contracts | KalshiEX LLC, a CFTC-designated contract market in the United States | Section VI of the member agreement: 55 restricted countries, plus places under US sanctions |
| polymarket.com (international) | Blockratize, Inc., outside the US regulatory system; closed to new US trades | Polymarket's developer documentation and its help page, which differ |
| Polymarket US | QCX LLC, a CFTC-designated contract market, built for US residents | The participant agreement excludes sanctioned places, places on the FATF lists and places that ban retail binary options; the US state position is in the [US guide](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality/united-states) |
[CSV](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality/data.csv?dataset=three-products-table), [JSON](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality/data.json?dataset=three-products-table)
## How to read the venue columns
Kalshi's list restricts trading event contracts, not having an account. The agreement says its restrictions "apply solely to the trading of Event Contracts and do not, in and of themselves, prohibit membership on, or non-trading access to, the Platform". Kalshi's own site could not be read on 30 October, so the directory uses the 1 October 2026 copy Kalshi publishes in its regulatory documents; that the two are identical was not confirmed.
Polymarket's developer documentation sorts places into three groups: blocked completely, close-only on the website and the API, and close-only on the website only. The directory's polymarket.com column follows it. Two documents disagree with each other, and the directory keeps the disagreement rather than resolving it:
- The help page counts differently - It is headed "40 countries are completely restricted" but lists 41, and it calls Ireland, Japan, Malta and the Netherlands completely restricted where the developer documentation makes them close-only on the website. It does not list South Korea, which the developer documentation makes close-only on the website.
- Close-only or blocked - The help page lists Singapore, Poland, Thailand and Taiwan both as completely restricted and as close-only, and calls four Canadian provinces restricted where the developer documentation makes them close-only.
- Germany - The developer documentation makes Germany close-only. The help page says existing positions there "must be held until market resolution".
- North Korea - The developer documentation lists it twice, as blocked and as close-only; the directory shows both.
- Recent change - Argentina is close-only now but was absent from an archived copy of 22 September 2026.
## The directory
Every place, with what each venue's document says and how far Vultax's research has got. "Not listed" means the document does not name the place. It says nothing about local law, or about whether an account will be approved.
## Guides so far
- [United States, state by state](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality/united-states) - sources checked 30 October 2026
- [California](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality/united-states/california) - sources checked 30 October 2026
- [Texas](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality/united-states/texas) - sources checked 30 October 2026
- [Washington](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality/united-states/washington) - sources checked 30 October 2026
- [Canada](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality/canada) - sources checked 30 October 2026
- [United Kingdom](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality/united-kingdom) - sources checked 30 October 2026
- [India](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-legality/india) - sources checked 30 October 2026
## What comes next
Guides for more US states come next, starting with Michigan, Florida, Nevada, New York, Hawaii, Georgia, Ohio, Utah, Wisconsin, Alabama and Arizona. After them come Germany and Australia, then the countries in the Europe record with dated authority actions, then the rest. Each guide is published only once its sources and photograph have been checked; until then the place appears here as a row and its address does not exist.
Venue documents change without notice. Kalshi last changed its list on 22 June 2026, when it added India, and Polymarket's documentation added Argentina between late September and late October. The columns show the documents as read on the date above the tables.
## Method and limits
The venue columns come from Kalshi's member agreement (the 1 October 2026 version in Kalshi's public regulatory documents) and Polymarket's developer documentation, both read on 30 October 2026, with Polymarket's help page read the same day for the differences listed above. The research column links to a Vultax guide, the US table, or the Europe record where one covers the place.
Vultax did not test access from any of these places. A venue's list is its own policy and can be stricter or looser than local law. This page describes documents; it is not legal advice. Challenge a line at research@vultax.com.
## Questions
### Which countries is Polymarket restricted in?
Polymarket's developer documentation blocks polymarket.com completely in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and three regions of Ukraine, and allows only closing positions in dozens of other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia. Its help page groups some of them differently. The directory lists every one.
### Which countries is Kalshi restricted in?
Kalshi's member agreement lists 55 countries where trading its event contracts is restricted, among them Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and India, plus places under US sanctions. The restriction covers trading event contracts, not holding an account.
### If my country is not on the list, is Polymarket legal there?
Not necessarily. The lists are the venues' own policies. A country can ban prediction markets without appearing on them; India, for example, says it has blocked polymarket.com although Polymarket's lists do not name it.
### Is Polymarket US the same as polymarket.com?
No. Polymarket US runs on a separate CFTC-registered exchange and is built for US residents; polymarket.com is the international site, which does not take new trades from the United States.
## Sources and methodology
- [Kalshi: Member Agreement, Section VI, version of 1 Oct 2026 (read 30 Oct 2026)](https://kalshi-public-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/regulatory/agreement/kalshi_member_agreement.pdf) — Kalshi's public regulatory copy; 55 places where trading event contracts is restricted, a list last changed on 22 June 2026. The venue's own policy, not a finding about local law
- [Polymarket documentation: geographic restrictions (read 30 Oct 2026)](https://docs.polymarket.com/api-reference/geoblock) — Blocked, close-only and website-only close-only lists for polymarket.com; does not cover Polymarket US
- [Polymarket Help Center: geographic restrictions (read 30 Oct 2026)](https://help.polymarket.com/en/articles/13364163-geographic-restrictions) — Updated 29 Oct 2026; headed 40 countries completely restricted but listing 41 codes, and differs from the developer documentation
- [Internet Archive copy of Polymarket's geographic-restrictions documentation (22 Sep 2026)](https://web.archive.org/web/20260922/https://docs.polymarket.com/api-reference/geoblock) — Used only to date a change: Argentina is absent on 22 September and present on 30 October
- [Polymarket US documentation: what is Polymarket US (read 30 Oct 2026)](https://docs.polymarket.us/getting-started/what-is-polymarket-us) — Describes Polymarket US as a CFTC-regulated exchange built for US residents
- [Polymarket US: individual participant and clearing member agreement (6 Aug 2026)](https://polymarketexchange.com/files/legal/latest/participant-agreement) — Section II.8 excludes sanctioned places, places on the FATF lists and places that ban retail binary options or similar products; it names no US state
- [Polymarket US: app terms of service, effective 23 Oct 2026](https://polymarket.us/tos) — QC Tech's app, separate from the QCX exchange and QC Clearing; section 3 sets age, eligibility and identity checks
- [Vultax: Is Polymarket legal in the US?](https://vultax.com/research/is-polymarket-legal-in-the-us-2026)
- [Vultax: Prediction market lawsuit tracker](https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-lawsuit-tracker) — Every case Vultax follows, each checked against the court record