Turkey to act against unauthorised online operators

Turkey’s Finance Minister said that the country is attempting to seize money from unauthorised online gambling operators.

Turkey.- Naci Agbal, Turkey’s Finance Minister, said earlier this week that he wants to stop as much money as possible from unauthorised online gambling operators that operate with Turkish punters.

Agbal explained that Turkey started to confiscate virtual gambling money and that he returned about US$11.4 billion a year through virtual betting and illegal virtual betting in Turkey. “We have begun to seize the money that the virtual betting investors on the internet invested in,” he explained, as local media reported. The Finance Minister emphasised that the social dimension is much more important than the economy, which has increased steadily.

The Minister appointed the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) to avoid crime networks from targeting young people. “Currently, MASAK is working intensively to coordinate these activities in Turkey. We work together with our ministries of Internal Affairs, Justice, Youth and Sports. After this time, we have made an amendment to the statutory decree (KHK) gamblers run this system as follows: The criminal organisations that organise this work find some young people and unemployed people, open bank accounts on behalf of them, and citizens pay money to these accounts they see on the internet.”

Back in July, the government announced a national plan to fight illegal gambling operations: the Turkish crackdown on illegal gambling businesses is developed by the Interior and Justice Ministries in coordination with the Revenues Department and the Police Department. National regulators are set to investigate gaming platforms and venues to shut down unauthorised activities both in the land-based and iGaming sector.