South Korea panel decides to block access to Polymarket

South Korea’s Korea Communications Standards Commission has decided to block access to prediction-betting site Polymarket, according to MBN. The commission made the decision at a telecommunications review subcommittee meeting today. It determined that Polymarket promotes speculative gambling because it uses a winner-takes-all profit and loss structure in which users’ financial gains or losses depend on the outcomes of events beyond their control, including politics, the economy, and the weather. The commission also considered that the operator manages market creation and trading rules, provides a cryptocurrency settlement system, and collects fee revenue, as well as opinions submitted during the prior review process by related agencies including the Korean National Police Agency that the service could fall under gambling offenses.