Police in South Korea’s Gangwon province have booked 26 domestic users of Polymarket on suspicion of illegal gambling and referred 18 of them to prosecutors, according to a report from Asia Business Daily. The group placed combined wagers of roughly 17.6 billion won, about $12.7 million, with the largest single stake, from one individual, reaching 5.7 billion won, or roughly $4.1 million.
Investigators argue that betting on yes-or-no event contracts meets the definition of illegal gambling under Article 246 of South Korea’s Criminal Act, since users are staking assets on outcomes they cannot control. The charged individuals have reportedly countered that Polymarket functions as a crypto derivatives market rather than a betting platform, pointing out that contracts trade on an order book and can be closed before they expire rather than simply settling win or lose.
The case follows South Korea’s media regulator ordering a block on domestic access to Polymarket last month, after ruling the platform created an illegal gambling environment. Polymarket had argued at the time that Korean law should not apply because the platform is non-custodial, does not accept won payments, and does not offer Korean-language service, distinctions that evidently did not satisfy police running a cyber investigation unit.
Whether an order-book contract counts as a security-like derivative or a bet is not a settled question anywhere prediction markets have expanded, and South Korea’s prosecutors will not be the last to test it in court. The report gives no timeline for when the 18 referred cases might be formally charged, and Polymarket had not responded to a request for comment as of publication.
