Kalshi's taker fee is 0.07 × contracts × price × (1 − price), times the series multiplier (1 by default) and rounded up to the next cent, so it peaks at 1.75¢ per contract at a 50¢ price. Resting (maker) orders are free on standard series and pay a fee only on the series Kalshi lists with maker fees.
Country-by-country rules, regulator actions and sources for Polymarket and Kalshi.
This is not legal advice, and we don't say whether trading is legal for you in Hong Kong. We report what each platform's published rules say about Hong Kong and the public regulator, court and police actions we could source, each with a date. Those rules change fast, so check the platform's current terms and the law in Hong Kong before doing anything. ‘Not listed’ only means a platform's own list doesn't name Hong Kong; it doesn't mean trading there is permitted.
Status under each platform's own published rules, and the most recent public action we could source, as of 2026-09-26.
Last public action: 2026-04-16 · Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC), a subsidiary of the Securities and Futures Commission · Public warning or intervention (Both platforms)
Source: Official
Dated public actions on record: 1
This page keeps two things apart for Hong Kong: what each platform's own published rules say, and what regulators, courts and police in Hong Kong have publicly done. A platform's list is its own policy and a government order is the government's, so a country can be on one and not the other.
The status labels are the same as in the main table. Restricted means the platform's own list blocks trading from Hong Kong. Close-only means existing users there can close positions but can't open new ones. Some regions means only named regions are restricted. Separate product means residents use a different, separately regulated product, as US residents do with the Polymarket US app. Not listed means the platform's published list doesn't name Hong Kong; that is not the same as permitted, and a regulator may still block the site.
Polymarket publishes two official lists that don't fully match: its Help Center page (updated August 14, 2026) and its developer docs (undated). We follow the dated Help Center list and say where the developer docs differ. Kalshi statuses follow its Member Agreement as fetched on September 24, 2026; the agreement itself is undated.
Each action shows the authority as it names itself, what it did, the platform it concerns and the date: the date of the action where it was published, otherwise the date it was first reported. Every entry is marked Official, Platform document or Secondary report. Where only secondary reporting exists, we say ‘reported by’ and name the outlet; where official sources conflict, we report both.
‘No public action found’ means our searches found none, not that none exists. Nothing on this page says whether trading is legal for you: for that, check the platforms' current terms and the law in Hong Kong.
Polymarket's Help Center page on geographic restrictions, updated August 14, 2026, lists 39 blocked countries and a separate close-only list; Hong Kong is on neither, and neither is the People's Republic of China. Its undated developer geoblock documentation doesn't name Hong Kong either, so the two lists agree. Under this site's labels Hong Kong is Not listed for Polymarket. That describes Polymarket's own policy only and doesn't mean trading from Hong Kong is permitted; the Hong Kong government's stated view is set out below.
In practice we found no block of any kind as of September 26, 2026: no ISP or DNS block, no app-store removal and no platform geoblock, and polymarket.com was reachable from Hong Kong. Polymarket serves a Traditional Chinese interface and has run markets on Hong Kong topics, including the release of Jimmy Lai and Hong Kong weather, as reported by HKET in April 2026. We found no Polymarket blog post, help article or notice that mentions Hong Kong.
Kalshi's Member Agreement (Section VI, ‘Restricted Jurisdictions’, undated; re-fetched September 26, 2026) lists the ‘People's Republic of China’ and ‘Taiwan’ but doesn't mention Hong Kong or Macau. The People's Republic of China was added in Kalshi's Exchange Notice of November 4, 2025; the first international list of October 23, 2025 didn't include it. The agreement doesn't say whether the China entry is applied to Hong Kong, a separate customs and legal territory, so under this site's labels Hong Kong is Not listed for Kalshi, with a note that the position is unclear. Kalshi's help center (updated March 20, 2026) says international trading is subject to the Member Agreement. We found no Kalshi blog post or notice naming Hong Kong.
Two sets of authorities are involved. On gambling, the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau (民政及青年事務局) sets policy and the Hong Kong Police Force enforces the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148), which criminalises gambling that isn't authorised or licensed; only the Hong Kong Jockey Club's horse racing, football betting and Mark Six lottery are licensed. A police press release of July 21, 2026 on World Cup betting states the current maximum penalties: betting with a bookmaker, a fine of HK$50,000 and 9 months' imprisonment; bookmaking or promoting bookmaking, a fine of HK$5 million and 7 years (official; it doesn't mention prediction markets). On securities, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) administers the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571); its subsidiary, the Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC), issued the prediction-market warning. No section of the Securities and Futures Ordinance has been cited against either platform; the IFEC's point is that participants have no protection under it.
Public actions, in order. April 14, 2026: Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak announced that the government would not proceed with the Jockey Club's planned basketball betting, due in September 2026, citing the ‘new trend and huge volumes’ of prediction markets (monthly volume growing from under US$100 million in early 2024 to US$13 billion in December 2025, about 40% of it sports) and the risk that a new licensed product would draw people into illegal betting on prediction-market platforms; the government said it would study the prevalence of prediction markets in Hong Kong with the Jockey Club and step up public education (news.gov.hk, official; also RTHK). No platform was named and no block or enforcement was announced. April 16, 2026: the IFEC published a feature warning that trading on prediction markets ‘may constitute illegal gambling’ in Hong Kong and that participants have no protection under the Securities and Futures Ordinance and may be unable to seek recourse (IFEC's own page, official). The IFEC page names no platform; The Standard (April 17, 2026), Sing Tao (April 18, 2026) and HK01 attributed the warning to Polymarket and Kalshi by name, which is why the timeline entry below is dated April 16, 2026 and marked as concerning both platforms.
The two official statements differ in strength: the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau's line, as quoted by Hogan Lovells Cadwalader on April 16, 2026, is that ‘any betting on sports in prediction market platforms was illegal’, while the IFEC says trading ‘may’ constitute illegal gambling. We found no court ruling on either view. Both statements are addressed to the public rather than to the platforms, and neither involves a block. Our searches through September 26, 2026 found no later action: no ISP block, no SFC enforcement, no Legislative Council bill, no Jockey Club or Monetary Authority measure naming either platform, and no court challenge. That means we found none, not that none exists.
The entries below are rendered from the same dated data as the main country table, newest first. Each row shows the date, the authority as it names itself, the type of action, the platform it concerns and the source with its type.
| Date | Authority | Action | Platform | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-04-16 | Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC), a subsidiary of the Securities and Futures Commission | Public warning or intervention | Both platforms | Source Official Checked 2026-09-24 Also reported by: Secondary report · Secondary report |
Public regulator, court and police actions concerning Polymarket and Kalshi in Hong Kong, as of 2026-09-24. Not legal advice.
This section reports what the law and the authorities in Hong Kong have said about people who take part in these markets, and any enforcement against users that has been made public. It describes; it doesn't advise.
Hong Kong's official statements are aimed at participants. Under the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148), betting with a bookmaker carries a maximum fine of HK$50,000 and 9 months' imprisonment, per the police press release of July 21, 2026; the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau's April 14, 2026 announcement describes sports bets placed on prediction-market platforms as illegal betting (news.gov.hk; quoted more directly by Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, April 16, 2026), and the IFEC's April 16, 2026 warning is a consumer notice that such trading may be illegal gambling and that participants have no protection under the Securities and Futures Ordinance. Hogan Lovells Cadwalader's note of April 16, 2026 reads the Ordinance's definitions of ‘betting’, ‘bookmaking’ and ‘lottery’, which cover guessing future events, as broad enough to reach prediction markets (law-firm commentary, not official guidance).
We found no prosecution or arrest of a Hong Kong prediction-market user. The police's World Cup operation announced on July 21, 2026, with 991 arrests, didn't mention prediction markets. Lawyer Che Ho-wah, quoted by Finance730 on May 9, 2026, expects enforcement to focus on operators and promoters, including influencers, and notes the difficulty posed by offshore servers (secondary). We found no bank, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, exchange or Inland Revenue Department statement naming Polymarket or Kalshi.
The basketball-betting reversal of April 14, 2026 is the most concrete policy consequence of prediction markets we found in Asia: a planned licensed product was shelved because of the volumes on Polymarket-style platforms; Asia Gaming Brief reported the halt the same day. BusinessFocus reported on July 22, 2026 that Chief Executive John Lee had called prediction-market growth of 130% in two years a ‘worrying trend’ and said the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau must address the risks before further steps; our source doesn't give the date of the remark.
PolyKal is a read-only research site, and it does not restrict access by country, including from Hong Kong. Its public pages, including prices on both platforms, order-book depth, after-fee cost comparisons, the fee calculator, and large-trade and whale data, need no account. You don't need a VPN to use them.
Viewing public market data is not trading. PolyKal doesn't place orders, hold funds or give access to trading on either platform, and a restriction on Polymarket or Kalshi in Hong Kong still applies to trading there. Polymarket's help center says that using a VPN to get around its restrictions violates its Terms of Use, and Kalshi's Member Agreement excludes people in its restricted jurisdictions; getting around a block can also break local law. PolyKal doesn't help anyone get around them.
Start with the compare page, the fee calculator or large trades, or read how Polymarket works and how Kalshi works.
Hong Kong is one of 27 countries, plus the United States, that PolyKal tracks. The full availability table shows every country's status under each platform's rules and its regulator actions side by side, with the same dates and sources as this page, and its change log lists every edit we make.
Every entry is re-checked at least once a quarter, and sooner when a platform or regulator announces a change. The next scheduled full re-check is shown in the sidebar.
We found no court ruling on it, and we don't decide it for you. What the record shows: the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148) criminalises gambling that isn't licensed, and only the Jockey Club's products are; the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau described sports bets on prediction-market platforms as illegal betting on April 14, 2026, and the SFC's IFEC warned on April 16, 2026 that trading on prediction markets ‘may constitute illegal gambling’ with no protection under the Securities and Futures Ordinance. Neither Polymarket nor Kalshi lists Hong Kong as restricted, which describes their policies, not Hong Kong law. Check the current law and the platform's current terms before doing anything.
We found no block as of September 26, 2026: no ISP block, court order, app-store removal or SFC enforcement naming Polymarket, and Polymarket's own lists don't name Hong Kong. The official position so far is a warning (IFEC, April 16, 2026) and a policy statement (Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, April 14, 2026), both addressed to the public.
Kalshi's Member Agreement lists the People's Republic of China (added in its notice of November 4, 2025) but doesn't mention Hong Kong, and it doesn't say whether the China entry covers Hong Kong; we show Hong Kong as ‘not listed’ with that caveat. Separately, press coverage of the IFEC warning of April 16, 2026 named Kalshi alongside Polymarket, and the Hong Kong statements described on this page don't distinguish between platforms.
On April 14, 2026, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak said the government would not proceed with the Jockey Club's basketball betting, planned for September 2026, because prediction markets had become a ‘new trend’ with ‘huge volumes’ (from under US$100 million a month in early 2024 to US$13 billion in December 2025, about 40% sports) and a new licensed product risked drawing people into illegal betting on those platforms. The government said it would study prediction markets' prevalence in Hong Kong with the Jockey Club and expand public education.
Yes, on PolyKal. Its pages load from Hong Kong without an account and show prices, order-book depth and after-fee comparisons for both platforms. Viewing data is not trading: PolyKal doesn't place orders or hold funds, and the Hong Kong statements described on this page concern betting or trading, not reading public prices.
No. Polymarket's help center says that using a VPN to get around its restrictions violates its Terms of Use, and Kalshi's Member Agreement excludes people in its restricted jurisdictions. Getting around a block can also break local law. You don't need a VPN to research these markets: PolyKal's prices, order books and fee calculator don't require one.
We re-check every country page at least once a quarter, and sooner when a platform or regulator announces a change; each rule and action on the page shows its own date and source. If you spot something out of date for Hong Kong, email [email protected] with a link to the new rule or order.
Every statement on this page rests on the sources below. Platform rules were checked against Polymarket's and Kalshi's own pages on September 24, 2026; regulator, court and police actions were checked against the sources listed on September 24–26, 2026. Each source is marked as official, a platform document or a secondary report. Where only secondary reporting was available, we cite it and say so; where official sources conflict, we report both. We re-verify this page quarterly.
Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC): feature on prediction markets, April 2026 (published April 16, 2026 per press coverage). Official; names no platform.
news.gov.hk: government will not proceed with basketball betting; prediction markets cited, April 14, 2026. Official. RTHK on the same announcement, April 14, 2026. Secondary. Asia Gaming Brief on the announcement, April 14, 2026. Secondary.
The Standard: trading on prediction markets may be illegal in Hong Kong, SFC says, April 17, 2026. Secondary; names Polymarket and Kalshi. Sing Tao Daily on the IFEC warning, April 18, 2026. Secondary. HK01 on the IFEC warning, April 2026. Secondary.
Hong Kong Police Force press release on illegal World Cup betting, with current maximum penalties under the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148), July 21, 2026. Official; doesn't mention prediction markets.
Hogan Lovells Cadwalader: prediction markets under the radar, Hong Kong signals heightened risk, April 16, 2026. Secondary (law-firm commentary; quotes the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau). Finance730: lawyer Che Ho-wah on prediction markets and the Gambling Ordinance, May 9, 2026. Secondary.
HKET: Polymarket markets on Hong Kong topics, April 2026. Secondary. BusinessFocus: Chief Executive John Lee on prediction-market growth as a ‘worrying trend’, July 22, 2026. Secondary; date of the remark not given.
Platform documents (all countries): Polymarket Help Center: Geographic restrictions (updated August 14, 2026), Polymarket developer docs: Geoblock (undated), Kalshi Member Agreement (undated; fetched September 24, 2026) and Kalshi Help Center: trading from outside the US (updated March 20, 2026).
PolyKal is an independent research tool. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Polymarket or Kalshi. We report each platform's published rules and public regulator, court and police actions in Hong Kong; we don't say whether trading is legal for you, and we don't help anyone get around a platform's restrictions. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. Not legal or financial advice.
Know of a newer rule, order or court decision for Hong Kong? Email [email protected] with a link to it.
Kalshi's taker fee is 0.07 × contracts × price × (1 − price), times the series multiplier (1 by default) and rounded up to the next cent, so it peaks at 1.75¢ per contract at a 50¢ price. Resting (maker) orders are free on standard series and pay a fee only on the series Kalshi lists with maker fees.
Country-by-country rules, regulator actions and sources for Polymarket and Kalshi.
This is not legal advice, and we don't say whether trading is legal for you in Hong Kong. We report what each platform's published rules say about Hong Kong and the public regulator, court and police actions we could source, each with a date. Those rules change fast, so check the platform's current terms and the law in Hong Kong before doing anything. ‘Not listed’ only means a platform's own list doesn't name Hong Kong; it doesn't mean trading there is permitted.
Status under each platform's own published rules, and the most recent public action we could source, as of 2026-09-26.
Last public action: 2026-04-16 · Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC), a subsidiary of the Securities and Futures Commission · Public warning or intervention (Both platforms)
Source: Official
Dated public actions on record: 1
This page keeps two things apart for Hong Kong: what each platform's own published rules say, and what regulators, courts and police in Hong Kong have publicly done. A platform's list is its own policy and a government order is the government's, so a country can be on one and not the other.
The status labels are the same as in the main table. Restricted means the platform's own list blocks trading from Hong Kong. Close-only means existing users there can close positions but can't open new ones. Some regions means only named regions are restricted. Separate product means residents use a different, separately regulated product, as US residents do with the Polymarket US app. Not listed means the platform's published list doesn't name Hong Kong; that is not the same as permitted, and a regulator may still block the site.
Polymarket publishes two official lists that don't fully match: its Help Center page (updated August 14, 2026) and its developer docs (undated). We follow the dated Help Center list and say where the developer docs differ. Kalshi statuses follow its Member Agreement as fetched on September 24, 2026; the agreement itself is undated.
Each action shows the authority as it names itself, what it did, the platform it concerns and the date: the date of the action where it was published, otherwise the date it was first reported. Every entry is marked Official, Platform document or Secondary report. Where only secondary reporting exists, we say ‘reported by’ and name the outlet; where official sources conflict, we report both.
‘No public action found’ means our searches found none, not that none exists. Nothing on this page says whether trading is legal for you: for that, check the platforms' current terms and the law in Hong Kong.
Polymarket's Help Center page on geographic restrictions, updated August 14, 2026, lists 39 blocked countries and a separate close-only list; Hong Kong is on neither, and neither is the People's Republic of China. Its undated developer geoblock documentation doesn't name Hong Kong either, so the two lists agree. Under this site's labels Hong Kong is Not listed for Polymarket. That describes Polymarket's own policy only and doesn't mean trading from Hong Kong is permitted; the Hong Kong government's stated view is set out below.
In practice we found no block of any kind as of September 26, 2026: no ISP or DNS block, no app-store removal and no platform geoblock, and polymarket.com was reachable from Hong Kong. Polymarket serves a Traditional Chinese interface and has run markets on Hong Kong topics, including the release of Jimmy Lai and Hong Kong weather, as reported by HKET in April 2026. We found no Polymarket blog post, help article or notice that mentions Hong Kong.
Kalshi's Member Agreement (Section VI, ‘Restricted Jurisdictions’, undated; re-fetched September 26, 2026) lists the ‘People's Republic of China’ and ‘Taiwan’ but doesn't mention Hong Kong or Macau. The People's Republic of China was added in Kalshi's Exchange Notice of November 4, 2025; the first international list of October 23, 2025 didn't include it. The agreement doesn't say whether the China entry is applied to Hong Kong, a separate customs and legal territory, so under this site's labels Hong Kong is Not listed for Kalshi, with a note that the position is unclear. Kalshi's help center (updated March 20, 2026) says international trading is subject to the Member Agreement. We found no Kalshi blog post or notice naming Hong Kong.
Two sets of authorities are involved. On gambling, the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau (民政及青年事務局) sets policy and the Hong Kong Police Force enforces the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148), which criminalises gambling that isn't authorised or licensed; only the Hong Kong Jockey Club's horse racing, football betting and Mark Six lottery are licensed. A police press release of July 21, 2026 on World Cup betting states the current maximum penalties: betting with a bookmaker, a fine of HK$50,000 and 9 months' imprisonment; bookmaking or promoting bookmaking, a fine of HK$5 million and 7 years (official; it doesn't mention prediction markets). On securities, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) administers the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571); its subsidiary, the Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC), issued the prediction-market warning. No section of the Securities and Futures Ordinance has been cited against either platform; the IFEC's point is that participants have no protection under it.
Public actions, in order. April 14, 2026: Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak announced that the government would not proceed with the Jockey Club's planned basketball betting, due in September 2026, citing the ‘new trend and huge volumes’ of prediction markets (monthly volume growing from under US$100 million in early 2024 to US$13 billion in December 2025, about 40% of it sports) and the risk that a new licensed product would draw people into illegal betting on prediction-market platforms; the government said it would study the prevalence of prediction markets in Hong Kong with the Jockey Club and step up public education (news.gov.hk, official; also RTHK). No platform was named and no block or enforcement was announced. April 16, 2026: the IFEC published a feature warning that trading on prediction markets ‘may constitute illegal gambling’ in Hong Kong and that participants have no protection under the Securities and Futures Ordinance and may be unable to seek recourse (IFEC's own page, official). The IFEC page names no platform; The Standard (April 17, 2026), Sing Tao (April 18, 2026) and HK01 attributed the warning to Polymarket and Kalshi by name, which is why the timeline entry below is dated April 16, 2026 and marked as concerning both platforms.
The two official statements differ in strength: the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau's line, as quoted by Hogan Lovells Cadwalader on April 16, 2026, is that ‘any betting on sports in prediction market platforms was illegal’, while the IFEC says trading ‘may’ constitute illegal gambling. We found no court ruling on either view. Both statements are addressed to the public rather than to the platforms, and neither involves a block. Our searches through September 26, 2026 found no later action: no ISP block, no SFC enforcement, no Legislative Council bill, no Jockey Club or Monetary Authority measure naming either platform, and no court challenge. That means we found none, not that none exists.
The entries below are rendered from the same dated data as the main country table, newest first. Each row shows the date, the authority as it names itself, the type of action, the platform it concerns and the source with its type.
Public regulator, court and police actions concerning Polymarket and Kalshi in Hong Kong, as of 2026-09-24. Not legal advice.
This section reports what the law and the authorities in Hong Kong have said about people who take part in these markets, and any enforcement against users that has been made public. It describes; it doesn't advise.
Hong Kong's official statements are aimed at participants. Under the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148), betting with a bookmaker carries a maximum fine of HK$50,000 and 9 months' imprisonment, per the police press release of July 21, 2026; the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau's April 14, 2026 announcement describes sports bets placed on prediction-market platforms as illegal betting (news.gov.hk; quoted more directly by Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, April 16, 2026), and the IFEC's April 16, 2026 warning is a consumer notice that such trading may be illegal gambling and that participants have no protection under the Securities and Futures Ordinance. Hogan Lovells Cadwalader's note of April 16, 2026 reads the Ordinance's definitions of ‘betting’, ‘bookmaking’ and ‘lottery’, which cover guessing future events, as broad enough to reach prediction markets (law-firm commentary, not official guidance).
We found no prosecution or arrest of a Hong Kong prediction-market user. The police's World Cup operation announced on July 21, 2026, with 991 arrests, didn't mention prediction markets. Lawyer Che Ho-wah, quoted by Finance730 on May 9, 2026, expects enforcement to focus on operators and promoters, including influencers, and notes the difficulty posed by offshore servers (secondary). We found no bank, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, exchange or Inland Revenue Department statement naming Polymarket or Kalshi.
The basketball-betting reversal of April 14, 2026 is the most concrete policy consequence of prediction markets we found in Asia: a planned licensed product was shelved because of the volumes on Polymarket-style platforms; Asia Gaming Brief reported the halt the same day. BusinessFocus reported on July 22, 2026 that Chief Executive John Lee had called prediction-market growth of 130% in two years a ‘worrying trend’ and said the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau must address the risks before further steps; our source doesn't give the date of the remark.
PolyKal is a read-only research site, and it does not restrict access by country, including from Hong Kong. Its public pages, including prices on both platforms, order-book depth, after-fee cost comparisons, the fee calculator, and large-trade and whale data, need no account. You don't need a VPN to use them.
Viewing public market data is not trading. PolyKal doesn't place orders, hold funds or give access to trading on either platform, and a restriction on Polymarket or Kalshi in Hong Kong still applies to trading there. Polymarket's help center says that using a VPN to get around its restrictions violates its Terms of Use, and Kalshi's Member Agreement excludes people in its restricted jurisdictions; getting around a block can also break local law. PolyKal doesn't help anyone get around them.
Start with the compare page, the fee calculator or large trades, or read how Polymarket works and how Kalshi works.
Hong Kong is one of 27 countries, plus the United States, that PolyKal tracks. The full availability table shows every country's status under each platform's rules and its regulator actions side by side, with the same dates and sources as this page, and its change log lists every edit we make.
Every entry is re-checked at least once a quarter, and sooner when a platform or regulator announces a change. The next scheduled full re-check is shown in the sidebar.
We found no court ruling on it, and we don't decide it for you. What the record shows: the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148) criminalises gambling that isn't licensed, and only the Jockey Club's products are; the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau described sports bets on prediction-market platforms as illegal betting on April 14, 2026, and the SFC's IFEC warned on April 16, 2026 that trading on prediction markets ‘may constitute illegal gambling’ with no protection under the Securities and Futures Ordinance. Neither Polymarket nor Kalshi lists Hong Kong as restricted, which describes their policies, not Hong Kong law. Check the current law and the platform's current terms before doing anything.
We found no block as of September 26, 2026: no ISP block, court order, app-store removal or SFC enforcement naming Polymarket, and Polymarket's own lists don't name Hong Kong. The official position so far is a warning (IFEC, April 16, 2026) and a policy statement (Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, April 14, 2026), both addressed to the public.
Kalshi's Member Agreement lists the People's Republic of China (added in its notice of November 4, 2025) but doesn't mention Hong Kong, and it doesn't say whether the China entry covers Hong Kong; we show Hong Kong as ‘not listed’ with that caveat. Separately, press coverage of the IFEC warning of April 16, 2026 named Kalshi alongside Polymarket, and the Hong Kong statements described on this page don't distinguish between platforms.
On April 14, 2026, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak said the government would not proceed with the Jockey Club's basketball betting, planned for September 2026, because prediction markets had become a ‘new trend’ with ‘huge volumes’ (from under US$100 million a month in early 2024 to US$13 billion in December 2025, about 40% sports) and a new licensed product risked drawing people into illegal betting on those platforms. The government said it would study prediction markets' prevalence in Hong Kong with the Jockey Club and expand public education.
Yes, on PolyKal. Its pages load from Hong Kong without an account and show prices, order-book depth and after-fee comparisons for both platforms. Viewing data is not trading: PolyKal doesn't place orders or hold funds, and the Hong Kong statements described on this page concern betting or trading, not reading public prices.
No. Polymarket's help center says that using a VPN to get around its restrictions violates its Terms of Use, and Kalshi's Member Agreement excludes people in its restricted jurisdictions. Getting around a block can also break local law. You don't need a VPN to research these markets: PolyKal's prices, order books and fee calculator don't require one.
We re-check every country page at least once a quarter, and sooner when a platform or regulator announces a change; each rule and action on the page shows its own date and source. If you spot something out of date for Hong Kong, email [email protected] with a link to the new rule or order.
Every statement on this page rests on the sources below. Platform rules were checked against Polymarket's and Kalshi's own pages on September 24, 2026; regulator, court and police actions were checked against the sources listed on September 24–26, 2026. Each source is marked as official, a platform document or a secondary report. Where only secondary reporting was available, we cite it and say so; where official sources conflict, we report both. We re-verify this page quarterly.
Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC): feature on prediction markets, April 2026 (published April 16, 2026 per press coverage). Official; names no platform.
news.gov.hk: government will not proceed with basketball betting; prediction markets cited, April 14, 2026. Official. RTHK on the same announcement, April 14, 2026. Secondary. Asia Gaming Brief on the announcement, April 14, 2026. Secondary.
The Standard: trading on prediction markets may be illegal in Hong Kong, SFC says, April 17, 2026. Secondary; names Polymarket and Kalshi. Sing Tao Daily on the IFEC warning, April 18, 2026. Secondary. HK01 on the IFEC warning, April 2026. Secondary.
Hong Kong Police Force press release on illegal World Cup betting, with current maximum penalties under the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148), July 21, 2026. Official; doesn't mention prediction markets.
Hogan Lovells Cadwalader: prediction markets under the radar, Hong Kong signals heightened risk, April 16, 2026. Secondary (law-firm commentary; quotes the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau). Finance730: lawyer Che Ho-wah on prediction markets and the Gambling Ordinance, May 9, 2026. Secondary.
HKET: Polymarket markets on Hong Kong topics, April 2026. Secondary. BusinessFocus: Chief Executive John Lee on prediction-market growth as a ‘worrying trend’, July 22, 2026. Secondary; date of the remark not given.
Platform documents (all countries): Polymarket Help Center: Geographic restrictions (updated August 14, 2026), Polymarket developer docs: Geoblock (undated), Kalshi Member Agreement (undated; fetched September 24, 2026) and Kalshi Help Center: trading from outside the US (updated March 20, 2026).
PolyKal is an independent research tool. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Polymarket or Kalshi. We report each platform's published rules and public regulator, court and police actions in Hong Kong; we don't say whether trading is legal for you, and we don't help anyone get around a platform's restrictions. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. Not legal or financial advice.
Know of a newer rule, order or court decision for Hong Kong? Email [email protected] with a link to it.