South Korea

Sports betting is a state monopoly: only Sports Toto (Sports Promotion Betting Tickets), operated by Sports Toto Co. under the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation (KSPO) and authorized under the National Sports Promotion Act, is legal, with online sales restricted to the official Betman platform certified by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Horse racing is likewise a legal monopoly run by the Korea Racing Authority (KRA) on a pari-mutuel basis, with authorized online betting launched in June 2024 after a 2023 amendment to the Korea Racing Authority Act. The National Gambling Control Commission (NGCC, est. 2007 under the Prime Minister) provides cross-sector oversight and illegal-gambling surveillance.

All offshore/private online betting is prohibited and criminalized, with operators facing up to seven years’ imprisonment and a "Double Punishment Clause" extending liability to citizens gambling abroad. Prediction markets are prohibited as illegal gambling: in June 2026 police launched the country’s first criminal probe of individual Polymarket users tied to the 3 June 2026 local elections.

Minimum gambling age is 19 (KSPO blocked all under-19s from Sports Toto in early 2025).

South Korean gambling laws are quite restrictive in who may play, how often they may play and what types of games may be offered. The only forms of gambling available across the nation are the national lottery and the Sports Toto betting tickets (Toto and Proto), sold online only through the official Betman site. There are 17 brick-and-mortar casinos in the country, but South Korean citizens are banned from all but one.

Online casinos in South Korea are prohibited by law, and Article 246 of the Criminal Act makes gambling itself an offence unless it amounts to no more than momentary amusement. Criminal groups are said to operate underground South Korean betting sites as well.

South Korea Betting Sites

The offshore gambling websites that accept Korean customers offer everything from sports betting to poker to traditional casino games such as baccarat, blackjack and slots. These online betting sites are not located in Korea and each holds an operating license from its home country, but none of them holds a Korean licence — and being offshore protects the operator, not the bettor, who commits an offence under Article 246 of the Criminal Act.

Are There Risks Playing at Korean Gambling Sites?

The legal risk is present, not hypothetical and not in the future. Korean law already prohibits playing at an offshore gambling site: Article 246 of the Criminal Act punishes anyone who gambles with a fine of up to 10 million won, and habitual gambling carries up to three years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to 20 million won.

The other potential risk is authorities deciding to reinterpret the Habitual Overseas Gambler law which prohibits citizens from playing at land-based casinos in other countries. That law targets land-based casinos, but the Criminal Act’s general gambling offence is already applied to internet gambling.

Deposits in Won

Asian bookmakers support South Korean won and offer their services in Korean. Those sites are great for certain types of sports betting but don’t offer quite as large a range of gambling options as European casino sites.

European headquartered betting websites offer a much wider range of sports betting options (including horse racing, cycling, motorsports, basketball, baseball and more) plus casino games and poker. The downside is you cannot deposit in KRW at any major European site. They prefer to use Euros, US dollars and Great British pounds.

South Korea Gambling Laws

The gambling laws of South Korea are in some ways very prohibitive and in other ways quite relaxed. Land-based casinos are legal in the country, but all of them except one are restricted to foreigners only. The government is happy for companies to provide highly profitable gambling services to tourists but it does not want the social ills associated with gambling to ravage the local population.

That one casino is located in a remote mountainous area in order to dissuade too many people from going too often.

Korean law takes it a step further than most countries by also prohibiting citizens from playing at brick-and-mortar casinos in other countries. It’s obviously a tough law to enforce, but there have been cases in the past in which heavy fines were levied on citizens found breaking the law.

Harsh as this law is, it is the Criminal Act’s general gambling offence that reaches online gambling in South Korea. Nonetheless, I recommend you seek the advice of a legal professional if you have any questions about Korean gambling law.

South Korea does permit certain forms of betting within the country. Horse racing, bicycling and boat racing can all be bet upon at designated locations. The government-run national lottery provides a lottery as well as limited forms of sports betting in South Korea via Sports Toto and Proto.

Sports Toto is a type of parimutuel wagering in which citizens can place wagers on the outcomes of soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball and golf matches. All bets placed on Sports Toto events are pooled together, the government keeps a portion of the pool and then divides the remainder equally among the winners.

Proto offers a type of fixed-odds betting similar to what you would find at any European or American sportsbook. Proto calculates the payout odds ahead of time. Its eligible events are football, baseball, basketball and volleyball fixtures staged by organising bodies designated under the law, together with major competitions held in Korea and abroad.

You can read more about both forms of betting here.

Overall, the existing gaming laws in Korea are strict and they do cover online betting. Korea has already answered the question the rise of online betting posed: the Criminal Act’s gambling offence set out above applies, and anyone who opens an internet gambling site for profit faces up to five years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to 30 million won.