Turkey blocks 15 social media accounts over illegal gambling promotion

The Ministry of Trade announced that access has been blocked to 15 highly followed social media accounts found to be promoting illegal gambling and directing users to unlicensed websites. The Ministry also said that as part of inspections into advertising and unfair commercial practices, it has imposed administrative fines totalling TL 49.8m.

In its statement, the Ministry said: “Access has been blocked for 15 high-follower social media accounts that were found to be promoting illegal betting and gambling and directing citizens to illegal sites.

“Within the scope of inspections against advertising and unfair commercial practices, administrative fines amounting to 49.8 million Turkish Lira have been applied.”

Turkey has been ramping up enforcement against illegal gambling, and coordination between institutions has been increasing. Officials recently held a high-level meeting attended by multiple agencies.

In February, authorities dismantled an illegal gambling network involved in transactions exceeding TL 15bn ($341.8m). The operation spanned 10 provinces and was centred in Batman province, resulting in the detention of 73 suspects.

In March, a total of 2,996 suspects were arrested across Turkey for drug and illegal gambling offences. According to Minister of Justice Akin Gürlek, 729 operations were carried out under the coordination of 171 Chief Public Prosecutor’s Offices across all 81 provinces.

In total, 669 operations targeted drug-related offences and judicial proceedings were taken against 9,185 suspects.

Alongside enforcement actions, authorities have also focused on disrupting financial flows linked to illegal gambling.

Over the past year, around TL 5bn in proceeds from criminal gambling activities were prevented from being laundered by the Financial Crimes Investigation Board, MASAK, through the interruption of financial transactions.