South Korea Police Target Polymarket Users Over Election Bets
South Korean police have opened an investigation into local users of Polymarket, the prediction market platform, on suspicion of illegal gambling. The Gangwon Provincial Police Agency accepted a request from the Korean National Police Agency and is now pursuing users across the country, not only in Gangwon Province, Chosun Biz reported.
The case is believed to be the first police investigation in South Korea to target domestic Polymarket users. At its center is crypto-funded betting on the country’s June 3 local elections, which appeared as a betting market on Polymarket, with wagers reportedly reaching hundreds of billions of won.
South Korean law prohibits betting outside approved channels. The approved betting channel cited by Chosun Biz is Sports Toto, the state-backed service run by the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, which carries a KRW 100,000 betting ceiling.
Users found in violation face fines of up to KRW 10 million under Article 246 of the Criminal Act, which covers gambling and habitual gambling offenses. Polymarket is legal in the United States but falls under South Korea’s prohibition on private gambling.
Attorney An Chang-bo, head lawyer at Respect Law Office and legal representative for some of the users under investigation, told Chosun Biz that the elements of a gambling offense appear to be met. A clear penalty level, he added, is hard to predict because South Korea has no prior punishment case involving Polymarket.
Two access points are central to the case. Polymarket can be reached in South Korea without IP bypass tools, and the Korea Communications Standards Commission confirmed it had not reviewed the platform because no Polymarket-related reports had been filed. On the payment side, Polymarket places no restrictions on Korean users who transact through dollar stablecoins.
The probe suggests authorities may now look beyond website blocking and examine individual user activity on offshore prediction markets, even where access was never technically restricted.
💡TGJ Take
This case tests how South Korea treats prediction markets when crypto removes the usual payment and access barriers. Operators and suppliers that work near prediction products should not read “available access” as legal tolerance. For affiliates, the risk is more direct: promotion of prediction markets to South Korean users creates exposure even when the operator sits offshore. Stablecoin access does not resolve compliance risk in restricted betting markets. It may delay enforcement, but it pulls it closer to the user.
