South Korea moves to block Polymarket over gambling concerns

JUST IN: South Korea orders access to Polymarket blocked, with regulators ruling the crypto prediction market provides an illegal gambling environment despite its noncustodial design and smart contracts.

South Korea just ordered Polymarket blocked, and the ruling is blunt. It's gambling.

The Korea Media and Communications Commission said Tuesday the platform's winner-takes-all structure, betting on politics, sports, even the weather, counts as illegal gambling under the Criminal Act. You can see the regulator's home turf here, in Seoul.

Polymarket pushed back with the usual crypto defence. We removed Korean language services, we don't take won, it's all noncustodial, smart contracts, we never touch the money. The commission's answer was refreshingly plain. Decentralisation doesn't exempt you from the law. You run the markets, you set the rules, you collect the fees. That's a bookmaker with extra steps, as far as Seoul's concerned.

And Korea isn't a lone wolf. France, Australia and Germany already shut the door, and JPMorgan reportedly cut Polymarket's banking ties too. The world's biggest prediction market keeps losing countries, one regulator at a time.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at cointelegraph.com