Papara founder Ahmet Faruk Karsli is back in custody as Turkey’s gambling case widens

Turkey’s case against Papara is still moving, and the prosecution is now asking for up to 5 years for the company’s management and 28 years for former owner Ahmet Faruk Karsli over alleged assistance to illegal gambling. For PSPs and high-risk merchants, the point is simple: regulators are no longer treating payment infrastructure as a neutral bystander.

1. Ahmet Faruk Karsli spent almost a year in custody before a court released him under a travel ban on 7 July 2026. That did not last long: on 10 July, the prosecution appealed the decision and sent him back to pre-trial detention.
2. The case against Papara is built around the claim that the payment system was designed for direct integration with shadow platforms. Investigators also allege that Karsli personally transferred illicit proceeds to family members and partners.
3. Prosecutors are seeking prison terms of up to 5 years for Papara’s management and 28 years for Karsli, which tells you the case is being framed as more than a routine compliance failure. It is being treated as criminal facilitation of illegal gambling in Turkey.
4. The company has already changed hands. In April, the state fund TMSF sold Papara to Emlak Katılım Bankası for about $100 million.
5. The ownership change and the pressure on the former management point to a full state takeover of control over this payment infrastructure. For the gambling and broader high-risk sectors, the signal is the same one regulators keep sending elsewhere: if a payments stack services illegal betting flows, the processor itself can become the target.