Korean regulators have approved restrictions on local visits to the forecast market platform Polymarket on the grounds that the platform was found to involve gambling activities. This has enabled the Republic of Korea to join a number of jurisdictions, including France and Spain, that have imposed restrictions on the platform.
Regulation denies the P2P defense
According to media reports in Korea, the Korea Broadcasting and Communications Review Commission found that Polymarket operated in a manner that touched on the provisions of the Criminal Code relating to gambling and the operation of gambling premises, as well as similar categories in the National Sports Renewal Act. According to the regulator, a user ' s gain or loss in such markets depends on the outcome of external events and is clearly speculative.
Polymarket allows users to trade “yes or no” contracts around realistic events such as elections, sports, economic data and weather, and is one of the larger projected markets worldwide. The platform has argued that it does not provide Korean-language services, does not support Korea Won payments, and uses non-hosting point-to-point transactions and smart contracts.
However, the Korean regulatory bodies did not accept this statement. In the view of the regulator, despite the P2P character of the transaction, the platform ' s operator is still responsible for the creation of the market, the setting of the rules of the transaction, and the provision of an encrypted system of asset recharge, withdrawal and settlement, with associated fees, which cannot preclude its operational liability.
Review initiated in July
This review began in July this year. The Korea National Police Agency and the National Gambling Control Board had previously requested that the platform be reviewed. The local media also stated that the police had conducted a separate investigation against local Korean Polymarket users suspected of involvement in illegal gambling.
In terms of regulatory expression, Korea's focus this time is not on whether the platform supports the local currency, but rather on whether the platform is substantial in organizing and facilitating transactions of bets settled with encrypted assets.
Many countries have introduced restrictions.
Korea is not the first country to impose restrictive measures on Polymarket. Previously, France had requested local Internet service providers to block the site, and access to the platform had been restricted in Spain, Indonesia, Argentina and Ukraine.
Polymarket currently lists 39 fully restricted countries in the Platform ' s notes, but Korea has not yet emerged. This means that the Platform ' s restricted list may not have been updated.