Overview
- Kalshi updated its members’ agreement to add India to its restricted‑jurisdictions list, immediately preventing residents from using the U.S.‑based prediction market and bringing the total blocked jurisdictions to 55.
- The change follows India’s law that prohibits online money games and a Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology advisory that directed ISPs and VPN providers to block betting and prediction‑market sites and warned Kalshi directly.
- National enforcement has included ISP‑level blocking of rivals such as Polymarket and steps by regulators in Spain, Indonesia, Singapore, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine and Brazil to curb access to prediction markets.
- Kalshi holds U.S. CFTC designation as a designated contract market, but that U.S. approval does not prevent other countries from applying domestic gambling law, so platforms are choosing between stricter controls, geographic retreat or lawsuits.
- The restricted access is likely to reduce users and trading liquidity, fragment global markets, raise compliance costs for operators and prompt closer scrutiny of payments, KYC and insider‑trading controls.