Turkey’s Interior Minister says illegal betting has become a national security issue, citing $40 billion annual cost

Turkey is tightening its crackdown on illegal betting, and Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi is framing the market as more than a public-order problem. In his telling, the combination of digital payments, cryptocurrencies, and intermediary payment providers has made illicit gambling a money-laundering channel that PSPs and acquirers need to pay attention to.

1. Çiftçi told Habertürk that the annual cost of illegal gambling to Türkiye is $40 billion, and said illegal betting has “transcended public order” and become a direct national security issue. He also called it a “scourge that corrupts society,” which is about as plain a warning as you get from a minister.
2. He said the rapid growth of digital payments and cryptocurrencies has transformed illegal betting into a major conduit for money laundering. In his words, “Casinos, junkets, cryptocurrencies and underground banking are the most critical parts of the money laundering infrastructure that fuels international organised crime.”
3. Turkey is using tighter inter-agency cooperation to track suspicious accounts, payment flows, and online infrastructure. Çiftçi also said illegal betting syndicates are using legitimate financial tools, shell e-commerce sites, and intermediary payment providers to run the business.
4. The enforcement numbers are not subtle: Turkey blocked 548,420 illegal betting and gambling websites between 2006 and 2025, including 84,000 in 2025 alone. In addition, 12,548 servers and connection addresses used for unlawful gambling were taken offline last year.
5. The country already operates an online gambling monopoly through its National Lottery Administration and the sports betting entity İddaa under the Spor Toto Organisation. Under Law No. 7258, operating or enabling gambling without a licence is a criminal offence, often paired with money laundering and fraud charges, which raises the stakes for anyone touching the flow.

For high-risk payment providers, the useful detail here is not the rhetoric; it is the mechanism. Turkey’s authorities are explicitly looking at payment flows, digital wallets, and intermediary providers, and they are treating illegal betting as part of a broader laundering stack rather than a standalone gaming issue.