Turkey’s MASAK says 102 more people were detained in offshore iGaming crackdown on 13 October

Turkey’s financial intelligence unit, MASAK, has announced another wave of detentions tied to offshore iGaming operators, adding to a series of raids across the country in recent days. For PSPs, acquirers, and anyone touching Turkey-facing gambling traffic, the only thing that matters here is scale: the enforcement action keeps widening, and the overlap between agency announcements means the total number of affected people is already above 1,000.

1. On 9 October, 25 people were detained in Uşak.
2. On 11 October, raids in Gaziantep, Mersin, Adana, Manisa, Kayseri, Kahramanmaraş, and Antalya led to 59 detentions, with 11 real estate properties placed under seizure.
3. On 13 October, MASAK announced the detention of another 102 people linked to offshore iGaming operators.
4. There was also a report of 37 detentions in Mersin on the same day, with 25 more people wanted by authorities.
5. Because multiple agencies are involved, the updates may partially overlap, but the broader picture is unchanged: Turkish enforcement against offshore iGaming-linked activity is still moving at scale.

The prior guidance circulating among lawyers for people connected to offshore iGaming business targeting Turkey remains the same: leave Turkey immediately, do not use Turkish airports for international transit, and do not visit the territory of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.