26 South Korean Users Indicted for Betting $12.7 Million on Polymarket

Twenty-six domestic users who placed bets totaling around $12.7 million (approximately 176 billion won) on Polymarket have been arrested on suspicion of illegal gambling, with 18 of them transferred to prosecutors. According to Asia Economic Daily, citing a report submitted by the National Police Agency to Rep. Yun Gyeon-young's office, Gangwon Police Cyber Investigation Division arrested 26 users as of September 15 and transferred 18 to prosecutors. The maximum bet per user was estimated at around 5.7 billion won. Police stated that Polymarket, which operates via an unregulated P2P model without managing real-name user lists, identified users through analysis of publicly available blockchain transaction records and open-source intelligence (OSINT). Authorities determined that Polymarket transactions, where virtual asset gains or losses are decided based on prediction outcomes, fall under Article 246 of the Criminal Act as gambling. Meanwhile, the arrested users argue that Polymarket functions more like a derivatives market based on virtual assets traded on order books.