Malta is continuing its forward-thinking approach to regulating online gambling and blockchain by beginning to explore options on how to best regulate prediction markets.
The Malta government is using the knowledge gained from analyzing the regulatory landscape in other jurisdictions as a reference point for their upcoming initiative, which is intended to create a framework for the regulation of prediction markets.
The trading of the results of events happening in the real world is taking place through prediction markets, including elections, economic data and sports. This trend is growing substantially since it has become leveraged heavily in the past few years; especially in the United States where some trading platforms (e.g., Kalshi, Polymarket) have experienced amazing growth with estimates up to hundreds of millions of dollars in trading volume generated within that industry over a period from 2023 until 2025.
There is no common regulatory framework in the EU concerning prediction markets; in fact, some countries allow prediction markets to exist while others are still working to decide how to classify the markets for regulatory purposes (i.e., a gambling service, a financial instrument, or a combination of both).
The current initiative by Malta to create a regulatory framework for prediction markets fits in with the larger goal of making Malta a nexus for emerging digital industries, such as online gaming and blockchain technology, while at the same time providing operators wishing to operate in Europe with legal certainty.
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