The Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) has ordered domestic internet service providers to block access to Polymarket, ruling that the prediction market platform breaches three separate Korean statutes at once.
The telecommunications deliberation subcommittee, chaired by standing commissioner Kim Woo-seok, took the decision at its meeting on 18 August. The block applies to all internet service providers operating in South Korea.
Three statutes behind the order
The commission cited the gambling provisions of the Criminal Act, the “similar acts” provisions of the National Sports Promotion Act, and the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.
Each does a different job. The Criminal Act establishes that the activity itself is gambling. The National Sports Promotion Act covers the issuing of anything resembling a sports betting ticket, which is a state monopoly in South Korea run through the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation. The network act is the instrument that lets the commission convert that finding into a technical access block by domestic ISPs.
The commission consulted the Korean National Police Agency, the National Gambling Control Commission and the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation before ruling.
The commission’s reasoning turns on the payout structure. The KCSC found that Polymarket’s winner-take-all markets make a user’s financial gain or loss depend on the outcome of events they cannot influence, including politics, the economy, international affairs, sport, elections and weather.
The decentralisation defence
Polymarket’s defence was jurisdictional.
The platform argued it falls outside the network act because it has removed Korean-language services and does not accept bets denominated in Korean won. It also argued that its non-custodial, peer-to-peer model, settled by blockchain smart contracts, means it does not operate as a gambling operator: it does not collect or manage user funds directly, and it does not issue betting tickets.
The commission rejected each of those points.
“Regardless of whether a service is decentralized or centralized, its technological characteristics and service methods cannot exempt it from the application of domestic laws.”
That position matters beyond this one platform. The non-custodial argument is the core legal defence used by most on-chain prediction markets when regulators challenge them, and Korea has now tested it against three statutes and dismissed it. The reasoning applies equally to any operator that routes bets through smart contracts while claiming it never holds the stake.
Enforcement reaches the user
The order is an access block, not a takedown, so Polymarket’s markets stay live for everyone outside South Korea.
Circumvention carries consequences for the individual. Korean users who reach the platform through a VPN can face fines of up to KRW 10 million (around $7,080) under the Criminal Act’s gambling provisions. Most ISP-level blocking regimes in Europe target the operator alone.
Blocked in four jurisdictions
Korea joins France, Australia and Germany among the jurisdictions that have already restricted access to Polymarket on gambling grounds.
The pace has picked up in 2026. Spain blocked Polymarket alongside Kalshi in a licensing crackdown in May. Brazil banned prediction markets outright, with telecoms regulator Anatel blocking 27 platforms in April. Denmark included Polymarket in a batch of 98 sites it designated as illegal gambling.
Polymarket has been expanding in the United States since its return to that market, and its valuation now runs into the billions of dollars. Outside the US, the number of jurisdictions it can serve keeps falling as regulators apply the gambling law they already have instead of waiting for a prediction-market framework.
Licensed operators are adding the same product inside their own permissions. Metaspins has opened prediction markets to its users, and BiggerZ is building them into a combined crypto casino and sportsbook.
What happens next
The immediate question is whether Polymarket complies. It has accepted regulatory decisions in other jurisdictions even while disputing the legal interpretation, and there is no indication it plans to litigate in Korea.
The wider question is where the statutory reading spreads. Korea reached its result using laws written long before on-chain markets existed, which is a route open to any regulator with a sports betting monopoly and a network-blocking power. Malta is working on the first EU framework built specifically for prediction markets. Until something like it exists, operators in this category will keep being assessed under gambling statutes drafted for a different product.
Source: Korea Communications Standards Commission
