On August 18, the South Korean Broadcasting, Media and Communications Commission ruled to block access to the prediction market platform Polymarket. The agency identified signs of the platform facilitating gambling and organizing an illegal equivalent of a sports betting pool.
Before the decision was made, Polymarket presented objections to the commission, arguing that the platform does not fall under Korean laws. They claimed that the service had removed the Korean language from its interface, does not conduct transactions in the national currency of Korea, and operates on a non-custodial P2P model using smart contracts.
However, the regulator dismissed these arguments, stating that the technical features of the service do not exempt it from national legislation. The commission also noted that the platform continues to offer markets on local topics, such as the amount of rainfall in Seoul in August.