Turkey has taken a particular dim view of illegal gambling and, to some extent – gambling as an institution. Nothing reflects this sentiment better than the fact that over the course of 12 months in 2024, the country was able to shutter 233,000 websites that were offering illegal gambling services within its territory, various media outlets reported.
The Treasury and Finance Ministry’s National Lottery Administration (NLA) has confirmed the number, outlining the scope of its enforcement action. In short, the NLA targeted websites that offered gambling, such as casino games of chance, and sports betting, without the necessary licenses to do so in the first place.
Surprisingly, a huge number of the websites targeting Turkey were supposedly hosted in the United States with 56% of all shuttered domains located in the country. Armenia and the Netherlands hosted another 17% and 6% of the total respectively.
Overall, however, the 233,000 websites sprawled across 95 countries in total, making the final tally of the websites blocked all the more impressive, given the scope it required to carry out successfully.
Presently, Turkey does not completely outlaw gambling as such. The country allows several forms of such entertainment, including state-owned lotteries, sports betting, and horse racing, which are all handled locally in the country through platforms such as IDDAA or the Turkey Jockey Club.
However, Turkey still puts fairly strong restrictions on gambling in general, and the country does not allow casinos as well as online gambling. The prohibition of games of chance has pushed bad actors to target locals to the extent they have been doing.
Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Minister, Mehmet Şimşek, has said that the country was determined to ensure that illegal gambling operations and financial crimes that cause tax loss and the victimization of citizens are shuttered once and for all. In a translated statement, he said:
"We are taking all kinds of measures to prevent illegal betting, virtual gambling and unauthorised draws and we will continue to do so."
Minister Şimşek reiterated that in order to carry out any form of legal gambling operation on the territory of Turkey, a legitimate license is required.
The minister vowed that Turkey would continue counteracting bad actors no matter what product they pushed on the country’s citizens, with illegal gambling a special priority of the administration.
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