Kalshi's taker fee is 0.07 × contracts × price × (1 − price), times the series multiplier (1 by default) and rounded up to the next cent, so it peaks at 1.75¢ per contract at a 50¢ price. Resting (maker) orders are free on standard series and pay a fee only on the series Kalshi lists with maker fees.
Country-by-country rules, regulator actions and sources for Polymarket and Kalshi.
This is not legal advice, and we don't say whether trading is legal for you in South Korea. We report what each platform's published rules say about South Korea and the public regulator, court and police actions we could source, each with a date. Those rules change fast, so check the platform's current terms and the law in South Korea before doing anything. ‘Not listed’ only means a platform's own list doesn't name South Korea; it doesn't mean trading there is permitted.
Status under each platform's own published rules, and the most recent public action we could source, as of 2026-09-24.
Last public action: 2026-09-16 · Gangwon Provincial Police Agency (강원경찰청) · Enforcement against users (Polymarket)
Source: Secondary report
Dated public actions on record: 3
This page keeps two things apart for South Korea: what each platform's own published rules say, and what regulators, courts and police in South Korea have publicly done. A platform's list is its own policy and a government order is the government's, so a country can be on one and not the other.
The status labels are the same as in the main table. Restricted means the platform's own list blocks trading from South Korea. Close-only means existing users there can close positions but can't open new ones. Some regions means only named regions are restricted. Separate product means residents use a different, separately regulated product, as US residents do with the Polymarket US app. Not listed means the platform's published list doesn't name South Korea; that is not the same as permitted, and a regulator may still block the site.
Polymarket publishes two official lists that don't fully match: its Help Center page (updated August 14, 2026) and its developer docs (undated). We follow the dated Help Center list and say where the developer docs differ. Kalshi statuses follow its Member Agreement as fetched on September 24, 2026; the agreement itself is undated.
Each action shows the authority as it names itself, what it did, the platform it concerns and the date: the date of the action where it was published, otherwise the date it was first reported. Every entry is marked Official, Platform document or Secondary report. Where only secondary reporting exists, we say ‘reported by’ and name the outlet; where official sources conflict, we report both.
‘No public action found’ means our searches found none, not that none exists. Nothing on this page says whether trading is legal for you: for that, check the platforms' current terms and the law in South Korea.
Polymarket's Help Center page ‘Geographic restrictions’ (updated August 14, 2026, re-checked September 24 and 26, 2026) does not name South Korea in its blocked list or its close-only list. Its developer geoblock docs (undated, re-checked the same days) put South Korea under ‘Regulatory-Restricted Jurisdictions (Close-Only on Frontend)’, with the API not restricted. Because only the developer docs name South Korea, PolyKal's main table shows Polymarket as close-only there on the developer docs' authority, and flags that the Help Center list omits the country.
In practice, close-only on the frontend means the website lets a user in South Korea close existing positions but not open new ones; we found no Polymarket publication of the date it applied this to South Korea. According to press coverage of the commission's August 18, 2026 hearing (Newsis, ZDNet Korea), Polymarket told the commission that it had removed its Korean-language service and does not process Korean won. We found no report of an app-store removal in South Korea. The government-side access block described below is a separate measure from Polymarket's own rule.
Kalshi's Member Agreement (section VI, ‘Restricted Jurisdictions’, undated, fetched September 24, 2026) does not list South Korea; North Korea is on the list. Kalshi's help page on trading from outside the US (updated March 20, 2026) says international trading is subject to that agreement and lists no countries itself. We found no Kalshi notice naming South Korea and no Korean regulator, court or police action naming Kalshi. ‘Not listed’ only describes Kalshi's own list; it doesn't mean Korean law permits trading there.
The body that ordered the block is the Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission (방송미디어통신심의위원회, the renamed Korea Communications Standards Commission, KCSC), acting through its Communications Standards Subcommittee. Under Article 44-7 of the Information and Communications Network Act it can order Korean internet service providers to block ‘illegal information’. The review was requested by the Korean National Police Agency, the National Gambling Control Commission and the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, and the decision cited Article 247 of the Criminal Act (opening a gambling place) and Article 26 of the National Sports Promotion Act, which reserves sports betting to the state-run Sports Toto. All of this is reported by Newsis and Media Today (August 18, 2026); we could not locate a press release or minutes on the commission's own site, so the action is recorded as a secondary report.
May 22, 2026: the commission opened a review of whether Polymarket breaches domestic gambling law, as Polymarket was running markets on the June 3, 2026 local elections; Korea-related volume of about US$54.4 million was reported by Asia Economy (May 26, 2026). June 6, 2026: the subcommittee gave Polymarket an ‘opportunity to state its opinion’, with a hearing set for mid-August, as reported by Weekly Kyunghyang (July 28, 2026).
August 18, 2026: the Communications Standards Subcommittee decided on an access block (접속차단) of Polymarket. According to Newsis, ZDNet Korea and Media Today, Polymarket argued that it had removed its Korean-language service, does not process won, runs a non-custodial peer-to-peer system on smart contracts and is not a gambling operator. The commission replied that ‘technical characteristics or service methods cannot evade the application of domestic law’, that the operator sets market rules, runs deposits, withdrawals and settlement and charges fees, and that winner-take-all bets on events nobody controls (its example was August rainfall in Seoul) create a real illegal-gambling environment. CoinDesk reported the decision the same day.
The block is an administrative order aimed at the platform: a correction request to ISPs under Article 44-7, the commission's standard mechanism, which Korean ISPs implement at network level. We have not confirmed whether ISPs had implemented it by September 26, 2026, or whether it covers subdomains or apps; no app-store order has been reported. We found no court challenge by Polymarket and no report of the order being lifted. Administrative block decisions can be challenged before Korea's administrative courts, but no filing has been reported.
Korea's financial regulators, the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, have made no statement we could find treating prediction markets as derivatives; a Capital Market Research Institute researcher told Weekly Kyunghyang (July 28, 2026) that recognising them as derivatives in Korea ‘is quite difficult’. We found no public Korean action against Kalshi.
The entries below are rendered from the same dated data as the main country table, newest first. Each row shows the date, the authority as it names itself, the type of action, the platform it concerns and the source with its type.
| Date | Authority | Action | Platform | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-16 | Gangwon Provincial Police Agency (강원경찰청) | Enforcement against users | Polymarket | Source Secondary report Checked 2026-09-26 Also reported by: Secondary report 26 users booked, 18 referred to prosecutors under Criminal Act Art. 246. |
| 2026-08-18 | Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission | Blocking order | Polymarket | Source Secondary report Checked 2026-09-24 Also reported by: Secondary report · Secondary report kocsc.or.kr: no press release found by search. |
| 2026-05-22 | Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission | Public warning or intervention | Polymarket | Source Secondary report Checked 2026-09-26 Review opened into whether Polymarket breaches domestic gambling law (Asia Economy via Daum, 2026-05-26). |
Public regulator, court and police actions concerning Polymarket and Kalshi in South Korea, as of 2026-09-24. Not legal advice.
This section reports what the law and the authorities in South Korea have said about people who take part in these markets, and any enforcement against users that has been made public. It describes; it doesn't advise.
Article 246 of the Criminal Act makes gambling an offence punishable by a fine of up to KRW 10 million, and habitual gambling by up to three years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 20 million, with a proviso for ‘temporary amusement’ (일시오락). Article 247 covers opening a gambling place, and Article 26 of the National Sports Promotion Act bans Sports Toto-like activities: Sports Toto is Korea's only legal sports-betting outlet, with a KRW 100,000 per-ticket cap, as reported by Asia Economy (May 26, 2026).
South Korea is one of two jurisdictions PolyKal tracks (with Taiwan) where police have pursued users. From late May 2026 the Gangwon Provincial Police cyber investigation unit summoned Polymarket users across the country on suspicion of gambling; Weekly Kyunghyang (July 28, 2026) reported that investigators traced wallets from withdrawals at domestic exchanges through public blockchain records, and that defence lawyers put the number of people contacted at ‘three digits’ as of July 2026, an estimate not confirmed by police.
On September 15–16, 2026 police booked 26 users and referred 18 to prosecutors under Article 246, with cumulative bets of about KRW 17.6 billion and the largest single user at about KRW 5.7 billion, as reported by Asia Economy (September 16, 2026) and Kangwon Ilbo (September 18, 2026). Press describes this as the first case that will let a court decide whether prediction-market trading is gambling; we found no report of indictments as of September 26, 2026. A defence lawyer quoted by Daum (September 8, 2026) argues that prediction markets are virtual-asset derivative investments rather than gambling, and a law-firm note (Decent Law, June 19, 2026) says no precedent exists and that the ‘temporary amusement’ proviso may apply to small users, citing Supreme Court case 2006도736. We found no National Tax Service statement and no exchange policy naming Polymarket.
The August 18, 2026 decision is the first regulator text we found that explicitly rejects Polymarket's non-custodial smart-contract defence: the commission held that setting market rules, managing deposits, withdrawals and settlement, and charging fees make Polymarket an operator, whatever the technology (Media Today, August 18, 2026).
The commission has been renamed, so sources use different names for the same body: Korean press writes 방송미디어통신심의위원회 (Broadcasting, Media and Communications Standards Commission), CoinDesk and PolyKal's data use ‘Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission’, and older sources say Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC).
PolyKal is a read-only research site, and it does not restrict access by country, including from South Korea. Its public pages, including prices on both platforms, order-book depth, after-fee cost comparisons, the fee calculator, and large-trade and whale data, need no account. You don't need a VPN to use them.
Viewing public market data is not trading. PolyKal doesn't place orders, hold funds or give access to trading on either platform, and a restriction on Polymarket or Kalshi in South Korea still applies to trading there. Polymarket's help center says that using a VPN to get around its restrictions violates its Terms of Use, and Kalshi's Member Agreement excludes people in its restricted jurisdictions; getting around a block can also break local law. PolyKal doesn't help anyone get around them.
Start with the compare page, the fee calculator or large trades, or read how Polymarket works and how Kalshi works.
South Korea is one of 27 countries, plus the United States, that PolyKal tracks. The full availability table shows every country's status under each platform's rules and its regulator actions side by side, with the same dates and sources as this page, and its change log lists every edit we make.
Every entry is re-checked at least once a quarter, and sooner when a platform or regulator announces a change. The next scheduled full re-check is shown in the sidebar.
Two separate things apply. Polymarket's own developer docs list South Korea as close-only on its website, so existing positions can be closed but new ones can't be opened; its Help Center list of August 14, 2026 doesn't name South Korea. Separately, on August 18, 2026 the Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission decided to have Korean ISPs block access to Polymarket, citing the Criminal Act and the National Sports Promotion Act. We have not confirmed the date ISPs implemented that block.
Kalshi's Member Agreement (fetched September 24, 2026) doesn't list South Korea among its restricted jurisdictions, and we found no Korean action naming Kalshi. That describes Kalshi's list and the public record only; it doesn't say whether trading is permitted under Korean law, which reserves sports betting to Sports Toto and makes gambling an offence under Article 246 of the Criminal Act.
The commission said Polymarket lets people place winner-take-all bets on events they can't control, sets the market rules, handles deposits, withdrawals and settlement and charges fees, which it treated as opening a gambling place under Article 247 of the Criminal Act and a breach of Article 26 of the National Sports Promotion Act. It rejected Polymarket's argument that a non-custodial smart-contract system isn't a gambling operator, saying technical design can't evade domestic law (Newsis and Media Today, August 18, 2026).
We don't answer that for you. What the record shows: Article 246 of the Criminal Act penalises gambling (a fine of up to KRW 10 million; habitual gambling up to three years or KRW 20 million) with a proviso for temporary amusement; since late May 2026 Gangwon police have investigated Polymarket users under it, and on September 16, 2026 they were reported to have referred 18 users to prosecutors. We found no court ruling yet on whether prediction-market trading is gambling, and defence lawyers dispute it. Check the current law and the platforms' terms before doing anything.
Yes. PolyKal's pages are read-only, need no account and aren't restricted by country, so prices, order books and fee comparisons for Polymarket and Kalshi load from South Korea. Viewing data isn't trading: PolyKal doesn't place orders or give access to either platform, and it doesn't help anyone get around Polymarket's close-only rule or the Korean access block.
No. Polymarket's help center says that using a VPN to get around its restrictions violates its Terms of Use, and Kalshi's Member Agreement excludes people in its restricted jurisdictions. Getting around a block can also break local law. You don't need a VPN to research these markets: PolyKal's prices, order books and fee calculator don't require one.
We re-check every country page at least once a quarter, and sooner when a platform or regulator announces a change; each rule and action on the page shows its own date and source. If you spot something out of date for South Korea, email [email protected] with a link to the new rule or order.
Every statement on this page rests on the sources below. Platform rules were checked against Polymarket's and Kalshi's own pages on September 24, 2026; regulator, court and police actions were checked against the sources listed on September 24–26, 2026. Each source is marked as official, a platform document or a secondary report. Where only secondary reporting was available, we cite it and say so; where official sources conflict, we report both. We re-verify this page quarterly.
Block decision, August 18, 2026 (secondary reports; no press release located on the commission's site): Newsis, ZDNet Korea, Media Today and CoinDesk.
Review and hearing (secondary reports): Asia Economy via Daum (May 26, 2026: review opened, election-market volume) and Weekly Kyunghyang (July 28, 2026: opportunity to state an opinion, the police investigation, the derivatives comment).
Police investigation of users (secondary reports): Daum (September 8, 2026: the defence argument), Asia Economy (September 16, 2026: 26 booked, 18 referred), Kangwon Ilbo (September 18, 2026) and Digital Asset (September 2026).
Legal commentary (secondary, law firm): Decent Law (June 19, 2026) on Article 246 of the Criminal Act, the temporary-amusement proviso and Supreme Court case 2006도736.
Platform documents (all countries): Polymarket Help Center: Geographic restrictions (updated August 14, 2026), Polymarket developer docs: Geoblock (undated), Kalshi Member Agreement (undated; fetched September 24, 2026) and Kalshi Help Center: trading from outside the US (updated March 20, 2026).
PolyKal is an independent research tool. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Polymarket or Kalshi. We report each platform's published rules and public regulator, court and police actions in South Korea; we don't say whether trading is legal for you, and we don't help anyone get around a platform's restrictions. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. Not legal or financial advice.
Know of a newer rule, order or court decision for South Korea? Email [email protected] with a link to it.
Kalshi's taker fee is 0.07 × contracts × price × (1 − price), times the series multiplier (1 by default) and rounded up to the next cent, so it peaks at 1.75¢ per contract at a 50¢ price. Resting (maker) orders are free on standard series and pay a fee only on the series Kalshi lists with maker fees.
Country-by-country rules, regulator actions and sources for Polymarket and Kalshi.
This is not legal advice, and we don't say whether trading is legal for you in South Korea. We report what each platform's published rules say about South Korea and the public regulator, court and police actions we could source, each with a date. Those rules change fast, so check the platform's current terms and the law in South Korea before doing anything. ‘Not listed’ only means a platform's own list doesn't name South Korea; it doesn't mean trading there is permitted.
Status under each platform's own published rules, and the most recent public action we could source, as of 2026-09-24.
Last public action: 2026-09-16 · Gangwon Provincial Police Agency (강원경찰청) · Enforcement against users (Polymarket)
Source: Secondary report
Dated public actions on record: 3
This page keeps two things apart for South Korea: what each platform's own published rules say, and what regulators, courts and police in South Korea have publicly done. A platform's list is its own policy and a government order is the government's, so a country can be on one and not the other.
The status labels are the same as in the main table. Restricted means the platform's own list blocks trading from South Korea. Close-only means existing users there can close positions but can't open new ones. Some regions means only named regions are restricted. Separate product means residents use a different, separately regulated product, as US residents do with the Polymarket US app. Not listed means the platform's published list doesn't name South Korea; that is not the same as permitted, and a regulator may still block the site.
Polymarket publishes two official lists that don't fully match: its Help Center page (updated August 14, 2026) and its developer docs (undated). We follow the dated Help Center list and say where the developer docs differ. Kalshi statuses follow its Member Agreement as fetched on September 24, 2026; the agreement itself is undated.
Each action shows the authority as it names itself, what it did, the platform it concerns and the date: the date of the action where it was published, otherwise the date it was first reported. Every entry is marked Official, Platform document or Secondary report. Where only secondary reporting exists, we say ‘reported by’ and name the outlet; where official sources conflict, we report both.
‘No public action found’ means our searches found none, not that none exists. Nothing on this page says whether trading is legal for you: for that, check the platforms' current terms and the law in South Korea.
Polymarket's Help Center page ‘Geographic restrictions’ (updated August 14, 2026, re-checked September 24 and 26, 2026) does not name South Korea in its blocked list or its close-only list. Its developer geoblock docs (undated, re-checked the same days) put South Korea under ‘Regulatory-Restricted Jurisdictions (Close-Only on Frontend)’, with the API not restricted. Because only the developer docs name South Korea, PolyKal's main table shows Polymarket as close-only there on the developer docs' authority, and flags that the Help Center list omits the country.
In practice, close-only on the frontend means the website lets a user in South Korea close existing positions but not open new ones; we found no Polymarket publication of the date it applied this to South Korea. According to press coverage of the commission's August 18, 2026 hearing (Newsis, ZDNet Korea), Polymarket told the commission that it had removed its Korean-language service and does not process Korean won. We found no report of an app-store removal in South Korea. The government-side access block described below is a separate measure from Polymarket's own rule.
Kalshi's Member Agreement (section VI, ‘Restricted Jurisdictions’, undated, fetched September 24, 2026) does not list South Korea; North Korea is on the list. Kalshi's help page on trading from outside the US (updated March 20, 2026) says international trading is subject to that agreement and lists no countries itself. We found no Kalshi notice naming South Korea and no Korean regulator, court or police action naming Kalshi. ‘Not listed’ only describes Kalshi's own list; it doesn't mean Korean law permits trading there.
The body that ordered the block is the Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission (방송미디어통신심의위원회, the renamed Korea Communications Standards Commission, KCSC), acting through its Communications Standards Subcommittee. Under Article 44-7 of the Information and Communications Network Act it can order Korean internet service providers to block ‘illegal information’. The review was requested by the Korean National Police Agency, the National Gambling Control Commission and the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, and the decision cited Article 247 of the Criminal Act (opening a gambling place) and Article 26 of the National Sports Promotion Act, which reserves sports betting to the state-run Sports Toto. All of this is reported by Newsis and Media Today (August 18, 2026); we could not locate a press release or minutes on the commission's own site, so the action is recorded as a secondary report.
May 22, 2026: the commission opened a review of whether Polymarket breaches domestic gambling law, as Polymarket was running markets on the June 3, 2026 local elections; Korea-related volume of about US$54.4 million was reported by Asia Economy (May 26, 2026). June 6, 2026: the subcommittee gave Polymarket an ‘opportunity to state its opinion’, with a hearing set for mid-August, as reported by Weekly Kyunghyang (July 28, 2026).
August 18, 2026: the Communications Standards Subcommittee decided on an access block (접속차단) of Polymarket. According to Newsis, ZDNet Korea and Media Today, Polymarket argued that it had removed its Korean-language service, does not process won, runs a non-custodial peer-to-peer system on smart contracts and is not a gambling operator. The commission replied that ‘technical characteristics or service methods cannot evade the application of domestic law’, that the operator sets market rules, runs deposits, withdrawals and settlement and charges fees, and that winner-take-all bets on events nobody controls (its example was August rainfall in Seoul) create a real illegal-gambling environment. CoinDesk reported the decision the same day.
The block is an administrative order aimed at the platform: a correction request to ISPs under Article 44-7, the commission's standard mechanism, which Korean ISPs implement at network level. We have not confirmed whether ISPs had implemented it by September 26, 2026, or whether it covers subdomains or apps; no app-store order has been reported. We found no court challenge by Polymarket and no report of the order being lifted. Administrative block decisions can be challenged before Korea's administrative courts, but no filing has been reported.
Korea's financial regulators, the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, have made no statement we could find treating prediction markets as derivatives; a Capital Market Research Institute researcher told Weekly Kyunghyang (July 28, 2026) that recognising them as derivatives in Korea ‘is quite difficult’. We found no public Korean action against Kalshi.
The entries below are rendered from the same dated data as the main country table, newest first. Each row shows the date, the authority as it names itself, the type of action, the platform it concerns and the source with its type.
Public regulator, court and police actions concerning Polymarket and Kalshi in South Korea, as of 2026-09-24. Not legal advice.
This section reports what the law and the authorities in South Korea have said about people who take part in these markets, and any enforcement against users that has been made public. It describes; it doesn't advise.
Article 246 of the Criminal Act makes gambling an offence punishable by a fine of up to KRW 10 million, and habitual gambling by up to three years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 20 million, with a proviso for ‘temporary amusement’ (일시오락). Article 247 covers opening a gambling place, and Article 26 of the National Sports Promotion Act bans Sports Toto-like activities: Sports Toto is Korea's only legal sports-betting outlet, with a KRW 100,000 per-ticket cap, as reported by Asia Economy (May 26, 2026).
South Korea is one of two jurisdictions PolyKal tracks (with Taiwan) where police have pursued users. From late May 2026 the Gangwon Provincial Police cyber investigation unit summoned Polymarket users across the country on suspicion of gambling; Weekly Kyunghyang (July 28, 2026) reported that investigators traced wallets from withdrawals at domestic exchanges through public blockchain records, and that defence lawyers put the number of people contacted at ‘three digits’ as of July 2026, an estimate not confirmed by police.
On September 15–16, 2026 police booked 26 users and referred 18 to prosecutors under Article 246, with cumulative bets of about KRW 17.6 billion and the largest single user at about KRW 5.7 billion, as reported by Asia Economy (September 16, 2026) and Kangwon Ilbo (September 18, 2026). Press describes this as the first case that will let a court decide whether prediction-market trading is gambling; we found no report of indictments as of September 26, 2026. A defence lawyer quoted by Daum (September 8, 2026) argues that prediction markets are virtual-asset derivative investments rather than gambling, and a law-firm note (Decent Law, June 19, 2026) says no precedent exists and that the ‘temporary amusement’ proviso may apply to small users, citing Supreme Court case 2006도736. We found no National Tax Service statement and no exchange policy naming Polymarket.
The August 18, 2026 decision is the first regulator text we found that explicitly rejects Polymarket's non-custodial smart-contract defence: the commission held that setting market rules, managing deposits, withdrawals and settlement, and charging fees make Polymarket an operator, whatever the technology (Media Today, August 18, 2026).
The commission has been renamed, so sources use different names for the same body: Korean press writes 방송미디어통신심의위원회 (Broadcasting, Media and Communications Standards Commission), CoinDesk and PolyKal's data use ‘Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission’, and older sources say Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC).
PolyKal is a read-only research site, and it does not restrict access by country, including from South Korea. Its public pages, including prices on both platforms, order-book depth, after-fee cost comparisons, the fee calculator, and large-trade and whale data, need no account. You don't need a VPN to use them.
Viewing public market data is not trading. PolyKal doesn't place orders, hold funds or give access to trading on either platform, and a restriction on Polymarket or Kalshi in South Korea still applies to trading there. Polymarket's help center says that using a VPN to get around its restrictions violates its Terms of Use, and Kalshi's Member Agreement excludes people in its restricted jurisdictions; getting around a block can also break local law. PolyKal doesn't help anyone get around them.
Start with the compare page, the fee calculator or large trades, or read how Polymarket works and how Kalshi works.
South Korea is one of 27 countries, plus the United States, that PolyKal tracks. The full availability table shows every country's status under each platform's rules and its regulator actions side by side, with the same dates and sources as this page, and its change log lists every edit we make.
Every entry is re-checked at least once a quarter, and sooner when a platform or regulator announces a change. The next scheduled full re-check is shown in the sidebar.
Two separate things apply. Polymarket's own developer docs list South Korea as close-only on its website, so existing positions can be closed but new ones can't be opened; its Help Center list of August 14, 2026 doesn't name South Korea. Separately, on August 18, 2026 the Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission decided to have Korean ISPs block access to Polymarket, citing the Criminal Act and the National Sports Promotion Act. We have not confirmed the date ISPs implemented that block.
Kalshi's Member Agreement (fetched September 24, 2026) doesn't list South Korea among its restricted jurisdictions, and we found no Korean action naming Kalshi. That describes Kalshi's list and the public record only; it doesn't say whether trading is permitted under Korean law, which reserves sports betting to Sports Toto and makes gambling an offence under Article 246 of the Criminal Act.
The commission said Polymarket lets people place winner-take-all bets on events they can't control, sets the market rules, handles deposits, withdrawals and settlement and charges fees, which it treated as opening a gambling place under Article 247 of the Criminal Act and a breach of Article 26 of the National Sports Promotion Act. It rejected Polymarket's argument that a non-custodial smart-contract system isn't a gambling operator, saying technical design can't evade domestic law (Newsis and Media Today, August 18, 2026).
We don't answer that for you. What the record shows: Article 246 of the Criminal Act penalises gambling (a fine of up to KRW 10 million; habitual gambling up to three years or KRW 20 million) with a proviso for temporary amusement; since late May 2026 Gangwon police have investigated Polymarket users under it, and on September 16, 2026 they were reported to have referred 18 users to prosecutors. We found no court ruling yet on whether prediction-market trading is gambling, and defence lawyers dispute it. Check the current law and the platforms' terms before doing anything.
Yes. PolyKal's pages are read-only, need no account and aren't restricted by country, so prices, order books and fee comparisons for Polymarket and Kalshi load from South Korea. Viewing data isn't trading: PolyKal doesn't place orders or give access to either platform, and it doesn't help anyone get around Polymarket's close-only rule or the Korean access block.
No. Polymarket's help center says that using a VPN to get around its restrictions violates its Terms of Use, and Kalshi's Member Agreement excludes people in its restricted jurisdictions. Getting around a block can also break local law. You don't need a VPN to research these markets: PolyKal's prices, order books and fee calculator don't require one.
We re-check every country page at least once a quarter, and sooner when a platform or regulator announces a change; each rule and action on the page shows its own date and source. If you spot something out of date for South Korea, email [email protected] with a link to the new rule or order.
Every statement on this page rests on the sources below. Platform rules were checked against Polymarket's and Kalshi's own pages on September 24, 2026; regulator, court and police actions were checked against the sources listed on September 24–26, 2026. Each source is marked as official, a platform document or a secondary report. Where only secondary reporting was available, we cite it and say so; where official sources conflict, we report both. We re-verify this page quarterly.
Block decision, August 18, 2026 (secondary reports; no press release located on the commission's site): Newsis, ZDNet Korea, Media Today and CoinDesk.
Review and hearing (secondary reports): Asia Economy via Daum (May 26, 2026: review opened, election-market volume) and Weekly Kyunghyang (July 28, 2026: opportunity to state an opinion, the police investigation, the derivatives comment).
Police investigation of users (secondary reports): Daum (September 8, 2026: the defence argument), Asia Economy (September 16, 2026: 26 booked, 18 referred), Kangwon Ilbo (September 18, 2026) and Digital Asset (September 2026).
Legal commentary (secondary, law firm): Decent Law (June 19, 2026) on Article 246 of the Criminal Act, the temporary-amusement proviso and Supreme Court case 2006도736.
Platform documents (all countries): Polymarket Help Center: Geographic restrictions (updated August 14, 2026), Polymarket developer docs: Geoblock (undated), Kalshi Member Agreement (undated; fetched September 24, 2026) and Kalshi Help Center: trading from outside the US (updated March 20, 2026).
PolyKal is an independent research tool. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Polymarket or Kalshi. We report each platform's published rules and public regulator, court and police actions in South Korea; we don't say whether trading is legal for you, and we don't help anyone get around a platform's restrictions. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. Not legal or financial advice.
Know of a newer rule, order or court decision for South Korea? Email [email protected] with a link to it.