The local regulator claims that the winner-takes-all structure of the prediction market encourages speculative gambling interest. In turn, Polymarket sets the rules for trading, withdrawals, cryptocurrency settlement, and fees. The company directly facilitates gambling without the required licence.
Polymarket emphasizes that it has disabled services in Korean and does not support payments in South Korean won. In addition, it operates through non-custodial transactions and smart contracts rather than directly controlling user funds.
However, the Korean regulator rejected these arguments. The country’s authorities stressed that decentralization and other technical elements do not exempt a platform from legal restrictions.