Crypto-Funded Prediction Markets Remain Accessible to South Koreans Despite Gambling Ban

Prediction markets tied to politics, sports, weather, and local elections are drawing Korean users even though several of the biggest platforms are classified in Korea as illegal gambling sites. For PSPs and payment teams, the mechanism matters more than the label: users can still get in through dollar-based stablecoins, while domestic card rails are blocked.

1. Polymarket, described as the world’s largest prediction market platform, is currently classified in Korea as an illegal gambling site. Under current law, placing stakes on any betting site other than Sports Toto, operated by the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation (KSPO) with a 100,000 won betting cap, is illegal both domestically and overseas.
2. The penalty risk is explicit: if a Korean person participates in betting on Polymarket, they can be fined up to 10 million won. In practice, though, the article says participation is still possible through dollar-based stablecoins, which can be purchased on a domestic virtual asset exchange, moved through a personal wallet, and deposited on Polymarket.
3. The same access pattern applies to Kalshi and PredictIt. There is also a way to pay with debit or credit cards linked to VISA, but domestically issued payment cards are blocked, which is the key payment control point mentioned in the source.
4. Polymarket says in its terms of service that U.S. nationals or U.S. residents, and users in countries subject to sanctions such as those related to North Korea, cannot use the service. It also says that if someone is found to be using a virtual private network (VPN) to spoof an IP address or bypass restrictions, assets may be frozen.
5. The demand is not limited to U.S. politics or sports. Polymarket also carries betting topics on Korea’s June 3 local elections, including wagers on who will be elected as heads of major metropolitan governments. The total amount wagered on the June 3 local elections across three betting sites, including Polymarket, is said to reach the tens of billions of won.

For high-risk payment providers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: blocking domestic card issuance does not stop flow if users can route value through stablecoins and personal wallets. As Hwang Seok-jin, a professor at the Graduate School of Information Security at Dongguk University, put it, if the government blocks access to the site, it may be difficult to retrieve the virtual assets deposited on the betting site, so it is advisable not to access it.