Polymarket adds self-exclusion and deposit limits as regulatory pressure grows

Polymarket has introduced voluntary self-exclusion, deposit limits and mental-health support for users, alongside a new Trust & Safety Center and expanded moderation rules for its U.S. and international platforms.

The new tools allow users to block themselves from the platform for 30 days, one year or permanently. U.S. users can choose daily, weekly or monthly limits across all deposit methods. A lower limit takes effect immediately, while an increase or removal is subject to a cooling-off period.

The company has partnered with Birches Health to offer resources for people experiencing compulsive financial-trading behaviour. Birches provides confidential online care nationwide, including clinical assessments, individual recovery plans and ongoing treatment. Polymarket plans to surface those resources in its product and through customer-support interactions.

It is also developing a co-branded Trading Responsibly guide, including a four-question self-check. Birches advises users to risk only money they can afford to lose and identifies chasing losses, persistent thoughts about trading, concealing activity and escalating trade size or frequency as potential warning signs.

Polymarket is expanding its Trust and Safety team and has created a central hub for information on user safeguards and marketplace integrity. The centre covers both of the company’s platforms and publishes community guidelines and content-moderation standards governing market comments, chat, Squads, user profiles and the Polymarket Discord.

Malea Otranto, Polymarket’s global head of trust and safety, said users should be able to “set their own limits, step away on their own terms, and know what the rules are.” She described the protections launched Wednesday as “the floor, not the ceiling.”

The rollout arrives amid growing pressure on prediction-market operators. CNN reported that New York sued to shut down Polymarket a week before the announcement, alleging that the company had sidestepped the state’s licensed-gambling rules, including safeguards for underage users, advertising, addiction funding and self-exclusion. Polymarket denied wrongdoing and filed a federal countersuit.

A bipartisan coalition of 44 states has separately argued in court that prediction platforms should be regulated as gambling and subject to state law. Prediction markets are instead legally classified as federally regulated financial markets, rather than gambling venues, and therefore do not have to follow state consumer-protection laws applicable to casinos and sportsbooks.

The measures resemble responsible-gaming policies common at sportsbooks. Sports and multi-leg parlays accounted for more than 98% of trading volume on Polymarket’s U.S. platform during a recent month, according to TickerTracker data cited by CNN.

The National Council on Problem Gambling has argued that prediction-market futures contracts present consumer risks similar to traditional sports betting, including impulsive behaviour, chasing losses and financial harm. It has also warned that users may not recognise the activity as functionally gambling and may be less likely to seek help.

Polymarket said it will monitor use of the responsible-trading tools and may modify them over time.