Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ: $GOOGL ) has updated its Chrome Web Store to prohibit prediction market transactions amid a growing backlash against Kalshi and Polymarket.
Alphabet is ending real-money transactions tied to prediction markets on the Chrome Web Store starting on Aug. 1 of this year.
The technology giant said that developers have until Aug. 1 to comply, after which non-compliant entities could face enforcement actions, including removal from the Chrome marketplace.
Prediction markets allow people to bet on the outcome of real-world events such as elections and sports contests.
The action by Alphabet comes as prediction markets face growing legal and regulatory pressure in the U.S. and abroad.
Platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket have increasingly found themselves at the centre of disputes involving gambling laws and the classification of event-based contracts.
Legal pressure on Kalshi continues to build in New York after the state won a court decision in its dispute with the prediction market operator.
New York State officials have maintained that prediction markets offering sports betting should be subject to existing gambling regulations.
Alphabet did not link its new Chrome policy to any individual enforcement case or specific prediction market.
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