BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - A court has ordered prediction platform Polymarket be blocked for users in Argentina, prosecutors said in a statement Monday, dubbing the site "a clandestine online betting system."

Polymarket allows users to buy and sell shares based on the probability of real-world events -- from election results to military attacks.

Prosecutors in Buenos Aires said the site "did not require identity or age verification, and allowed the creation of accounts in a matter of minutes," making betting available to children "without any kind of control."

The investigation arose from a complaint filed by the Buenos Aires City Lottery.

The court also will instruct tech giants Google and Apple to remove access to Polymarket's mobile apps in Argentina.

The decision came after a controversy in Argentina over a sudden surge in bets placed on the platform prior to the release of monthly inflation data Thursday, which led to some financial analysts speculating on a possible leak of the official index.

Polymarket has already been blocked in France, Italy, Germany and other European countries.

Polymarket calls itself the world's largest prediction market, a realm of betting that was once dismissed as a niche crypto curiosity and has gone mainstream in recent years.