Turkish minister calls illegal betting ‘scourge that corrupts society’ 

Turkey is escalating its crackdown on illegal betting, according to Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi who described the black market as a national security concern. 

Çiftçi highlighted the extensive scale of the illegal market in Turkey in a recent interview with Habertürk.

“The annual cost of illegal gambling to Türkiye is $40 billion. Gambling has moral and social dimensions. For every gambling amount, there is a young person’s ruined future. According to our beliefs, gambling is haram [forbidden],” he told the paper.

“Illegal betting has long since transcended public order and has become a direct national security issue.” He emphasised that illegal betting was a “scourge that corrupts society”.

“You cannot manage a threat you cannot see. Türkiye has now reached a capacity to see, analyse and respond to this threat,” he warned.

The country operates an online gambling monopoly via its National Lottery Administration and the sports betting entity İddaa under the Spor Toto Organisation.

Türkiye’s Law No. 7258 criminalises operating or enabling gambling activities without a licence, often bundling such offences together with money laundering and fraud charges, amplifying legal consequences for offenders.

Cryptocurrency fueling illegal betting

According to Çiftçi, the rapid growth of digital payments and cryptocurrencies has transformed illegal betting into a major conduit for money laundering. 

“Casinos, junkets, cryptocurrencies and underground banking are the most critical parts of the money laundering infrastructure that fuels international organised crime,” he said in the interview. “The global gambling market will reach $205 billion in 2030.”

He said the Turkish government was deploying tighter inter-agency cooperation, including tracking suspicious accounts, payment flows and online infrastructure, to dismantle these illicit operations.

Çiftçi warned that illegal betting sydicates were using legitimate financial tools, shell e-commerce sites and intermediary payment providers to facilitate illegal gambling operations.

“Criminal organisations are no longer robbing with knives or guns, but with algorithms and digital wallets, and we are responding in the same arena,” he stressed. 

Government intensifies enforcement actions

In response to the growing black market threat the government blocked 548,420 illegal betting and gambling websites between 2006 and 2025, including 84,000 in 2025 alone.

Additionally, 12,548 servers and connection addresses used for unlawful gambling were taken offline last year.

Using AI-powered systems and technical monitoring, the Illegal Betting and Sports Crimes Investigation Bureau have identified various “suspicious” account patterns. 

Further to this, influencers promoting illegal betting sites have had legal action taken against them, the minister said. 

Beyond targeting gambling websites, the Interior Ministry’s broader initiative has included tackling organised crime, human trafficking and cybercrime. 

“We deployed law enforcement, intelligence and financial auditing agencies simultaneously in the fight against illegal gambling,” Çiftçi explained.

Enforcement against illegal gambling in Turkey sits within the larger framework of public safety. “Illegal gambling and international security threats are intertwined. We, as a country, recognised this a long time ago,” Çiftçi said.