Turkey has suspended nearly 150 football referees and assistant referees amid an investigation into alleged match betting.The first investigation found that...
Turkey’s national lottery joins Erdoğan’s war on illegal gambling
Turkey is strengthening its fight against illegal gambling, with the country’s national lottery, Milli Piyango İdaresi (MPİ), now fully on board.
Recently, MPI submitted around 420,000 complaints against illegal gambling websites to Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), highlighting the urgency of the problem, as the complaints cover nearly 239,000 illegal domains.
This move is part of the government plan under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 2025–2026 Action Plan. Since May, Turkey has already blocked more than 10,500 foreign gambling servers and 1,400 related advertising sites, tracking illegal transactions worth more than €166 million over the past two years.
Illegal gambling operations often use foreign servers and crypto payments, making them harder to detect. Authorities warn that despite the closure of hundreds of sites, new platforms quickly reappear.
President Erdoğan has put this topic as both a social and national security priority, aiming for a visible reduction in illegal gambling by 2026.
FAQs
Is gambling legal in Turkey?
Gambling in Turkey is mostly legal.
What is the legal gambling age in Turkey?
The legal gambling age in Turkey is 18 years old.
Turkey’s Football Federation (TFF) has announced disciplinary action after discovering that hundreds of referees and match officials had betting accounts.
During a press...
