He was born in 1909 and lost his father in the First World War. Trained as a bricklayer and shoemaker, he first encountered the artistic processing of leather in 1933 in the High Tatras, when he helped produce commemorative items for the owner of a bazaar at Štrbské Pleso. Gradually, he developed his own style, inspired by the interest and demand of tourists. From 1939 onwards, he was professionally guided in his work by Dr. Ema Marková, the chairwoman of the newly formed Association for the Improvement of Home Production in Slovakia, with whom Adam Beťko collaborated.

In the post-war period, he worked at the Ďumbier production cooperative in Liptovský Mikuláš, where, in addition to commemorative items, belts and moccasins for folk ensembles were also produced. He made the first moccasins for the folk ensemble Lúčnica. From the mid-1950s, and after production cooperatives were removed from the auspices of the Centre for Folk Art Production, he became one of the first individual collaborators of the center. Here, in collaboration with artists, he mastered the technique of sewing individual parts with a narrow strap, which he also used as a decorative element. He primarily produced small utility items – cases for knives, keys, or pens, book covers, bookmarks, wallets, watch straps, breast bags, handbags.

He designed some patterns for metal stamps himself, mostly based on embroideries from the Piešťany and Orava regions. After the Second World War, he mostly ordered the stamps from the artistic engraving of Otčenášek in Prague; from the 1960s on, they were made for him by toolmakers from Tesla in Liptovský Hrádok, especially the well-known metalworker Jaroslav Budiš. He also ensured that his art would not disappear and trained his successor, Želmíra Staroňová, who continued his experience and artistic sensibility. His products were also known abroad; for example, in 1958, he represented them at the World Exhibition in Brussels. In 1964, he received a certificate of qualification as a master of folk art production