TL;DR
- Polymarket was blocked in South Korea following a resolution by the Korea Communications Standards Commission.
- Authorities rejected the platform’s argument about its P2P nature and classified it as an illegal gambling operator.
- More than 30 jurisdictions, including France, Spain, Argentina, and Indonesia, already restrict access to the platform.
Polymarket, the popular prediction market based on yes-or-no contracts tied to real-world events, was blocked in South Korea by the country’s Korea Communications Standards Commission.
The resolution was grounded in violations of the Criminal Act and the National Sports Promotion Act, making South Korea the latest of more than 30 jurisdictions to restrict access to the platform on the grounds that it constitutes a form of gambling.
The commission began reviewing the case in July, at the request of the National Police Agency and the National Gambling Control Commission. At the same time, police opened an independent investigation into local Polymarket users for alleged participation in illegal betting.
Polymarket’s Defense Failed to Convince Regulators
Polymarket argued, according to local media, that it had removed its Korean-language services, that it does not accept payments in won, and that it operates through non-custodial peer-to-peer transactions and smart contracts. The regulator rejected these arguments outright, noting that the company continues to administer market-making and exchange operation rules, as well as managing cryptocurrency deposit, withdrawal, and settlement systems and charging fees for its services.
The commission also maintained that the structure of prediction markets encourages speculative behavior, given that users’ gains and losses depend on events outside their control.
A Map of Restrictions That Keeps Growing
South Korea joins a broad group of countries that have restricted access to Polymarket. France ordered its internet service providers to block the site, following the lead of Spain, Indonesia, Argentina, and Ukraine. In the latter country, Dmitry Nikolaievskyi, legal director of the Project Office for the Development of Ukraine’s Digital Economy at the Ministry of Digital Transformation, stated that there is no legal pathway for the platform to return. The platform itself lists 39 countries with fully restricted access, although South Korea does not yet appear on that list.
