The Korea Communications Standards Commission has decided to block access to the prediction market platform Polymarket within the country, determining that its trading structure, which settles results with digital assets, constitutes or promotes illegal gambling.

Regulators believe that Polymarket's profits and losses depend on political, economic, international relations, sports, election, and weather events that users cannot control, exhibiting characteristics of speculative gambling where 'the winner takes all'.

The commission also pointed out that the platform operator is responsible for creating markets, setting trading rules, and providing functions for digital asset deposits, withdrawals, and settlements; in their judgment, this structure essentially forms an environment for fund collection and payment.

Polymarket has claimed that it does not provide services in Korean, does not support payments in Korean won, and uses decentralized technology, thus should not be subject to South Korean laws. South Korean regulators rejected this argument, stating that language, technical architecture, and service models cannot evade legal applicability to domestic users.

Regulators specifically mentioned that the platform offers localized event markets such as "Seoul August Rainfall", believing that it provides transactions to South Korean users that determine profits and losses based on random outcomes, and that the block is a necessary measure to protect domestic users.

The South Korean police submitted opinions during the review process, suggesting that the service may violate South Korean gambling-related laws. The specific date and technical method for the block have not been disclosed, but it is expected to be implemented by internet service providers to enforce access restrictions.

In terms of market mechanisms, South Korea classifies prediction markets as gambling rather than financial derivatives, cutting off the local user base, traffic, and demand for stablecoin settlements for Polymarket. Beneficiaries include licensed lotteries, casinos, and locally regulated entertainment services; those under pressure include prediction markets targeting South Korean users, crypto payment gateways, and event contract platforms reliant on global liquidity. Users bypassing regional restrictions via VPNs also violate Polymarket's own rules and may trigger compliance actions from the platform.

Source: Public Information