The Supreme Court of Korea held that wagering cash-convertible game money against predetermined odds on sports results depended on chance and constituted gambling, reversing a lower court's acquittal in a case involving an online sports prediction platform1. The ruling, reported in September 2025, concerned the platform Score888, which used virtual coins that could be traded for fiat currency2.
The defendant spent about 15.4 million won (USD 11,000) on the platform, placing bets over six months from May 23, 2021, to November 26, 2021, on the results of professional soccer, basketball, baseball and volleyball games2. He bought in-game currency through an online exchange, received virtual currency payouts when he won, and exchanged the coins for cash through the same exchange, making deposits in 62 separate transactions2. A branch of the Seoul District Court found him guilty and fined him 1 million won (USD 720), saying the use of online exchanges to change money showed a clear intent to gamble2. The High Court overturned that decision and found him not guilty, holding it was difficult to view the site as a gambling platform beyond a reasonable doubt; the Prosecution Service appealed, and the Supreme Court backed the district court and reinstated the fine2.
The Supreme Court said the High Court had misunderstood the legal principles of gambling2. It defined gambling as "two or more participants wagering assets and determining gains or losses by chance," with chance meaning "a situation in which the outcome is determined by facts that the parties cannot predict with certainty or freely control"1. It held that neither participants nor operators could predict or control sports results, so the wagers on game money depended on chance and constituted gambling1. On the platform's currency, the court ruled that convertibility to fiat currencies such as the Korean won was a key criterion for deciding whether virtual currencies constitute property2.
"Sports prediction games that use convertible in-game coins constitute gambling."
Under the Criminal Act, gambling is illegal for Korean citizens, punishable by fines of up to 20 million won or up to three years in prison, and the prohibition applies to Koreans abroad1. The Criminal Act does not itself define gambling; the definition comes from the Supreme Court1. Separately, South Korean police released data showing a 24-fold rise in gambling-related juvenile crime cases over the three years from 2021 to 20242.
| Stage | Court | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| First instance | Seoul District Court branch | Guilty, 1 million won fine |
| Appeal | High Court | Acquittal |
| Final | Supreme Court | Conviction and fine reinstated |
What it means for players
The ruling gives Korean courts a working definition of gambling that turns on chance and on whether tokens can be converted to cash. For anyone in South Korea, betting on sports results through a platform that uses convertible in-game coins now falls inside that definition, and Korean authorities may conclude that prediction markets, where outcomes are not known in advance, constitute a type of illegal gambling1. Because the prohibition applies to Korean citizens abroad, the location of the platform or the bet is not by itself decisive1. The court also treated convertible game currency as a form of property, which matters for how such cases are charged2. The practical exposure described in the sources is a fine of up to 20 million won or up to three years in prison1. The sources do not report how the ruling has been applied to individual players since September 2025.
What happens next
The sources do not report any scheduled next step in this case. More broadly, the article notes that it is unclear how the Lee Jae Myung administration will handle prediction markets alongside its crypto agenda, and that the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act includes licensing and registration of digital asset firms and rules against using non-public information and market manipulation1. In late July, the Blue House announced it would support passage of the National Assets Basic Act, which identifies digital assets as a national development objective and legalizes Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds1. The 2026 Economic Growth Strategy released in January 2026 included legalizing spot exchange-traded funds for Bitcoin and other digital assets1.
