India joins Kalshi's expanded roster of banned territories
The prediction market platform Kalshi has expanded its restricted territories to include India, bringing the total to 55 jurisdictions, following warnings from Indian officials to VPN services about enabling access to such platforms.
The prediction market platform Kalshi has expanded its roster of banned territories to include India, based on an updated members' agreement document released on Wednesday.
The revised document currently identifies 55 total restricted territories from which residents cannot access the prediction market platform.
Back in April, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued warnings to virtual private network (VPN) service providers, instructing them to cease enabling access to "illegal and blocked online betting and prediction market platforms."
This latest development contributes to the mounting regulatory challenges facing prediction markets. Spanish regulators blocked access to both Polymarket and Kalshi in May, citing violations of local gambling regulations, while Indonesian authorities restricted access to Polymarket following the platform's decision to list contracts speculating on whether President Prabowo Subianto would exit office prior to completing his term.
Additional nations, such as Singapore, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine and Brazil, have similarly implemented blocks or prohibitions against prediction market services including Kalshi and Polymarket.
Prediction markets face scrutiny over sports and political contracts
Contracts relating to political betting and sports-related events have attracted heightened regulatory attention.
US legislators introduced proposed legislation in January designed to limit political prediction market trading among government officials, following an incident where a Polymarket participant earned more than $400,000 through a contract connected to the potential removal of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, sparking concerns about insider trading activities.
Most recently, Kentucky became the latest US state to file lawsuits against five prediction market services, among them Kalshi and Polymarket, alleging they are "operating unlicensed and illegal sports betting and gambling platforms," according to Cointelegraph's Thursday report.
Among the largest prediction market platforms, Kalshi and Polymarket command $3.7 billion and $3.2 billion in weekly trading volume, respectively.
The sports betting category represented the largest segment across both platforms, generating $328 million in daily volume for Kalshi and $196 million for Polymarket, based on data provided by Defirate.