Brazil bans 28 betting platforms including Kalshi and Polymarket over investor protection concerns!

Brazilian Finance Minister Dario Durigan announced a sweeping ban on 28 betting platforms operating in the country, with prediction market heavyweights Kalshi and Polymarket among those blocked. The government cited rising concerns about investor protections and the unchecked growth of online gambling as the driving rationale.

The move signals a hardening regulatory posture from Brasília toward offshore and decentralized prediction markets — platforms that have seen explosive global growth but remain largely unregulated in most jurisdictions. For Polymarket and Kalshi, Brazil represented a significant and fast-growing user base in Latin America.

The crackdown lands as regulators worldwide wrestle with how to classify prediction markets — whether as gambling, financial instruments, or something else entirely — a question that now carries real market-access consequences.