South Korea charges 26 in Polymarket gambling crackdown
Regulation & Gov ·
Police move against two dozen users follows a regulatory block on the prediction-market platform last month.
South Korean police have charged 26 Polymarket users with illegal gambling, opening criminal cases tied to activity on the platform, according to The Block. The charges cover wagers said to total $12.7 million, marking one of the more concrete enforcement actions taken against Polymarket users in the region to date.
The case follows a decision last month by South Korea's media regulator to block local access to Polymarket, after the regulator determined the platform offers illegal gambling under domestic law. That ruling effectively cut off direct access to the site for users inside the country, setting the stage for the criminal charges now filed against the 26 individuals.
The mechanics of the enforcement center on South Korea's gambling statutes, which do not carve out an exception for blockchain-based prediction markets. Police have treated wagering on Polymarket's markets the same as other forms of unauthorized betting, a stance reinforced by the earlier regulator finding that triggered the access block, as reported by wublockchain.xyz.
The action is corroborated across multiple outlets covering the same underlying police report, with accounts converging on the figure of 26 charged users and the $12.7 million total tied to the cases. The consistency across reporting points to a single police disclosure being picked up and confirmed by separate news organizations rather than isolated or conflicting claims.
What remains unclear is how South Korean authorities identified the 26 individuals despite the platform being blocked, what penalties they may face under the illegal gambling law, and whether additional charges against other users are pending. It is also not yet known whether Polymarket itself has responded to the block or the criminal cases, or whether the company has taken any steps to restrict South Korean access from its own side. Further disclosures from police or from Polymarket would clarify the scope of the crackdown and any broader implications for the platform's operations in the country.