Indonesia Blocks Polymarket Citing Online Gambling Laws After Market Predicts Presidential Exit!

Indonesia has blocked access to Polymarket, the decentralized prediction market platform, after authorities determined its betting and speculation activities violate local online gambling laws. The move was reported by Reuters and follows a surge of attention the platform received in Indonesia over a market that wagered on when President Prabowo Subianto would leave office.

The timing is pointed: the presidential-exit market appears to have been the proximate trigger for regulatory scrutiny, even if the formal justification rests on broader anti-gambling statutes. Indonesia has a history of aggressive internet content blocking, and prediction markets occupy a legally ambiguous space that makes them an easy target in jurisdictions with strict gambling frameworks.

For Polymarket, the block represents a meaningful reputational and growth headwind in Southeast Asia's largest economy.