- The Broadcasting, Media and Communications Standards Commission resolved a corrective request for access blocking at its communications review subcommittee on 18 August.
- The commission found Polymarket to be information that abets gambling under the Criminal Act and information for similar acts under the National Sports Promotion Act.
- Australia’s ACMA blocked Polymarket a year earlier, in August 2025, under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.
South Korea’s media standards regulator ordered domestic internet providers to block Polymarket on 18 August, finding that the platform’s winner-take-all prediction markets amount to illegal gambling under the country’s criminal code.
The Broadcasting, Media and Communications Standards Commission passed the corrective request at its communications review subcommittee, ruling that Polymarket constitutes information that abets gambling or is intended to provide a venue for gambling under the Criminal Act, and information aimed at similar acts under the National Sports Promotion Act.
Gains and losses are determined by the outcome of events users cannot control, the commission said, listing politics, the economy, international relations, sport, elections and weather, and that winner-take-all arrangement encourages a speculative mentality.
The commission also weighed that Polymarket’s operator creates the markets, sets the trading rules, runs deposit, withdrawal and settlement systems for crypto, and collects fees on trading.
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What Polymarket Argued
Polymarket told the commission at a hearing on 6 July that it had removed its Korean-language service and does not accept won, placing it outside the country’s information and communications network law.
It argued the platform runs on non-custodial peer-to-peer transactions and smart contracts, so it is not an organiser, does not directly collect or manage user funds, and does not issue sports betting tickets, meeting neither the criminal nor the sports law tests on its own reading.
The application of domestic law cannot be avoided on the grounds of whether a Korean-language service is provided, or of technical characteristics or service methods such as decentralised or centralised technology,
The Broadcasting, Media and Communications Standards Commission.
It pointed to markets on domestically specific questions, including August rainfall in Seoul, and said blocking was unavoidable to protect local users.
Before deliberating, the commission took opinions from the National Police Agency, the National Gambling Control Commission and the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, all of which said Polymarket’s operation could amount to gambling offences under Korean law.
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The Australian Precedent
The ACMA asked internet providers to block Polymarket on 14 August 2025 for breaching the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, after an investigation found it offering gambling services to Australians without a licence.
Its interest began during the federal election, when Polymarket promoted markets on the result to Australian users. That action took the regulator’s running total of blocked illegal gambling sites to nearly 1,300.
France blocked Polymarket from 16 July, citing the scope for heavy user losses and the possibility that some bets could be manipulated. Germany blocked it in September 2025.
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