Turkey is escalating enforcement against illegal gambling under a centralised framework that aligns prosecutors, financial regulators and the Ministry of Trade behind a single nationwide directive issued by Justice Minister Akın Gürlek. The structure replaces a fragmented enforcement model with coordinated action across 171 chief public prosecutor offices in all 81 provinces, with the next round of legislative reforms scheduled for parliamentary debate in 2026.
The acceleration follows a presidential circular published in the Official Gazette and signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which set out the Action Plan for Combating Illegal Online Betting, Games of Chance and Gambling (2025-2026). MASAK, Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board, was assigned to lead implementation in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, the Interior Ministry and other public bodies.
Prosecutor-led coordination across 81 provinces
Gürlek, who replaced Yılmaz Tunç in a cabinet reshuffle ordered by Erdoğan in March, has moved the enforcement model toward centralised judicial oversight. Within weeks of his appointment, the former Istanbul chief prosecutor issued directives requiring structured cooperation between prosecutors, police, cybercrime units and financial intelligence officers.
The Ministry of Justice has instructed prosecutor offices to systematically report cases into a shared information network and to hold twice-yearly coordination meetings with police and specialised units. The framework is designed to address jurisdictional gaps that previously allowed illegal operators to shift activity between provinces, drawing comparisons with parallel approaches across Europe such as Italy’s digital firewall initiative against illegal online gambling.
The scale of recent operations indicates the model is already in active use. Gürlek reported that authorities conducted 729 operations in March targeting drug offences, illegal betting and online gambling, resulting in 2,996 arrests and judicial measures against a further 820 suspects across all 81 provinces.
11th Judicial Package and penal code reforms
The legislative centrepiece is Erdoğan’s 11th Judicial Package, expected to be the first law debated by parliament in 2026. The package amends both the Penal Code and the Misdemeanours Law, raising minimum and maximum prison sentences for running or enabling illegal betting platforms.
Prosecutors receive direct powers of seizure, suspension and prosecution. Bank and digital payment accounts linked to illegal betting can be frozen for up to 48 hours during investigations. Banks and payment processors must provide transaction data, account records and payment histories within ten days of a prosecutor’s request, with non-compliance triggering institutional penalties.
“Each new loophole that allows these networks to operate within our country is being closed. Nobody, whether organiser or participant, can get away with digital anonymity or lax penalties from here on out,” Tunç said when introducing the package.
MASAK and the financial perimeter
MASAK’s role has expanded from financial intelligence to compliance gatekeeping. Under regulations effective from 1 January 2026, banks must collect detailed origin-of-funds and stated-purpose information for transfers of 200,000 Turkish liras and above. Generic explanations are no longer accepted, and customers must select a defined transaction category that includes gambling-linked payments.
The framework treats Turkey’s state-sanctioned operators as the only authorised channels: sports betting monopoly İddaa, lottery operator Milli Piyango and horse racing authority Türkiye Jokey Kulübü. Banks and payment institutions have been instructed to apply stricter monitoring protocols to prevent fund flows toward unauthorised platforms, and the framework now extends to mobile payment applications and digital wallet providers.
Ticaret Bakanlığı, the Ministry of Trade, now reports to the Justice Minister on monitoring of online platforms and advertising. The ministry blocked 15 high-follower social media accounts in its most recent advertising sweep and issued administrative fines totalling TL49.8m (€1m) across 117 cases of advertising rule breaches.
Cross-border enforcement and recent operations
Authorities have signalled that the next enforcement phase will extend internationally. MASAK and the Ministry of Justice have named Cyprus, Georgia, North Macedonia and Armenia among jurisdictions accused of hosting operators targeting Turkish consumers. Milli Piyango submitted a report to MASAK identifying 239,000 domains it considers in direct violation of Turkish gambling laws. The direction mirrors broader European pressure on cross-jurisdictional enforcement seen when seven European regulators convened in Madrid on cross-border oversight.
Site blocking has become a routine instrument. On 12 May, Istanbul Police detained 108 suspects in AI-assisted raids across 35 provinces, blocking 5,151 websites involved in illegal betting, advertising or payment facilitation. The volume sits well above smaller European actions such as the Romanian regulator’s recent block of 30 unlicensed gambling sites, reflecting the scale of unlicensed market activity inside Turkey.
A separate operation announced on 14 May targeted 200 suspects across 21 provinces, with authorities identifying approximately TL100bn and $2bn in laundered proceeds linked to illegal betting, fraud, bribery and money laundering.
“The determination that the proceeds of crime at the level of approximately 100 billion TL and 2 billion dollars are laundered in the financial system clearly reveals the extent of the ongoing struggle,” Gürlek said following the 14 May operation.
The 11th Judicial Package is expected to enter parliamentary debate in the coming weeks. Erdoğan has framed the dismantling of illegal gambling networks as a structural objective to be completed before Turkey’s next general election, with operator-side compliance, payment institution monitoring and cross-border cooperation set to define the next enforcement cycle.
Source: Turkish Ministry of Justice
