The Turkish Government’s fight against illegal online gambling and money laundering is being carried out via a process of financial disruption as much as enforcement.
According to local reports, the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) has been working throughout 2025 to uncover and prevent money laundering via online gambling, with fruitful results.
Across the year, around TL 5bn ($114m) of proceeds from criminal gambling activities were prevented from being laundered by MASAK through the interruption of financial transactions.
Some of the money was being moved around via foreign currency and crypto assets, but investigations identified various perpetrators of illegal betting and gambling, and as a result, the authorities were able to seize or block the funds as they were changing hands.
Land-based casinos have been banned in Turkey since 1998, while online gambling is only permissible through the country’s state-owned sports betting and lottery monopolies.
Online gaming, including the use of foreign operators, is a criminal offence and the Government is firmly committed to these restrictions.
As part of the latest efforts from MASAK, the illicit activities of six payment companies were also halted for their role in facilitating the laundering of criminal funds.
In each case, the company’s operating licence was revoked by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.
The Treasury and Finance Minister, Mehmet Simsek, has warned citizens about the dangers of online gambling, as well as individuals' own responsibility not to participate in illegal gambling activities.
He stated: “I would like to strongly remind our citizens once again that they may face undesirable criminal consequences if they rent out or allow others to use their accounts.”
As these words imply, the Turkish Government’s stance on illegal gambling places the burden of criminal responsibility with gamblers as much as operators – particularly, as he is referring to, when individuals intentionally attempt to circumvent restrictions.
Certain high-end perpetrators of gambling-related criminal activity were identified by MASAK as ‘Barons’
