Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Chair Sarah Court confirmed at a parliamentary hearing that the regulator has received no operating applications from prediction market platforms, signaling potential strict scrutiny for any future license requests. Court highlighted that prediction markets' trading mechanisms resemble binary options—which Australia has already banned—due to their win-or-lose outcomes and underlying assets often unrelated to traditional financial markets. While Australian users can directly access overseas platforms like Polymarket, Court warned that these users remain outside local financial regulatory protections, lacking access to dispute resolution mechanisms and client fund safeguards. The ASIC's stance underscores growing regulatory pressure on prediction markets globally as jurisdictions evaluate consumer protection risks associated with event-based betting platforms.