South Korea Orders Polymarket Block After Illegal Gambling Ruling

South Korea has ordered domestic access to Polymarket blocked after the country’s media and communications regulator determined that its prediction markets amount to an illegal gambling environment under Korean law.

The Broadcast Media and Communications Standards Commission approved the access-blocking order on August 18, finding that Polymarket content can facilitate gambling and the operation of gambling venues under the Criminal Act, while sports-related markets can fall within prohibited activities under the National Sports Promotion Act.

Regulator Rejects Polymarket’s Non-Custodial Defense

The commission focused on Polymarket markets covering politics, economics, international affairs, sports, elections and weather, where traders take positions on outcomes they cannot control. It highlighted the platform’s winner-take-all structure and a market tied specifically to August rainfall in Seoul as evidence that Korean users were being offered locally relevant wagering opportunities.

Polymarket argued during the review that it had removed Korean-language services, did not support won-denominated payments and operates through non-custodial peer-to-peer transactions and blockchain smart contracts. The platform also argued that it does not directly collect or manage customer funds.

Regulators rejected those arguments because Polymarket still controls market creation and trading rules, provides crypto deposit, withdrawal and settlement infrastructure, and earns fees from trading activity. The commission said decentralized technology or the absence of Korean-language services cannot by itself remove a service from domestic legal requirements.

South Korea Joins Wider Polymarket Crackdown

The Korean action follows a string of restrictions against prediction markets across Asia and Europe. Indonesia blocked Polymarket as an illegal online gambling platform in May after the service offered markets tied to Indonesian political events.

Days earlier, Spain ordered Polymarket and Kalshi blocked while investigating whether the platforms offered betting products without the required authorization. France, Germany and Australia have also imposed access restrictions on Polymarket under their respective gambling frameworks.

Polymarket itself currently lists 39 countries as completely restricted, although those restrictions include a mixture of local regulatory requirements, gambling rules and international sanctions rather than a single legal classification.

Korean Users Face Tighter Enforcement

The block follows earlier scrutiny of Polymarket activity in South Korea. Police opened an illegal gambling investigation into local users in June after substantial trading around the country’s presidential election, placing individual participation as well as platform access under regulatory attention.