BURSTB.C.’s Independent Gambling Control Office released a statement on Friday to clarify that many activities offered by prediction markets are considered unregulated gambling and are therefore illegal in the province.
This follows a federal regulator’s notice that prediction markets dealing in “event contracts, prediction contracts or prediction market contracts” should not be regulated as securities and derivatives.
The most well-known prediction markets are Polymarket and Kalshi, which allow users to “trade” contracts on outcomes ranging from sports to elections to whether Jesus Christ will return before the end of the year.
The Gambling Control Office says that under B.C.’s current legislation, products based on sports or entertainment outcomes are considered gambling.
This includes, but is not limited to, trading offered on both Polymarket and Kalshi.
“Any unregulated online gambling or prediction market operator that offers products based on sports or entertainment outcomes and allows users in B.C. to access their site is operating illegally in our province,” a Gambling Control Office spokesperson said in an email.
In B.C., online gambling is only allowed through the regulated PlayNow platform run by the B.C. Lottery Corporation.
The Gambling Control Office issued the clarification on prediction markets after the Canadian Securities Administrators and Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization published a joint notice that these markets should not be regulated through securities and derivatives legislation, as they are in the United States.