President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ordered his cabinet to “eradicate illegal online gambling by any means necessary.” The directive has become one of the most high-profile orders on a social issue that has turned into a national crisis.
Ministers have been instructed to eliminate access to unlicensed and offshore gambling sites before the next general elections, which the president must call no later than 2027.
Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Erdoğan described gambling as “a plague on society that destroys families, the future, and faith.”
“This is not simply a digital crime – it is a plague preying on our youth and families,” Erdoğan declared.
“We will not stand by while illegal networks profit from the despair of our citizens. Our state has the means, the intelligence, and the will to eliminate this scourge. And we will do so.”
The president’s statements mark a turning point. Since becoming Turkey’s first directly elected head of state in 2014, Erdoğan has rarely addressed the gambling sector directly, leaving the matter to ministries and regulators. His new rhetoric signals that he now personally intends to clean up an industry he views as a social threat.
Erdoğan’s comments followed a series of journalistic investigations revealing a surge in gambling addiction among Turkish youth, particularly through unlicensed betting platforms and crypto casinos.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has faced public outrage after reports of teenagers and young civil servants falling into heavy debt, prompting calls for a national crackdown.
Further alarm was raised by a report from Yeşilay (the Green Crescent), Turkey’s oldest public health organization. In its “Turkey Gambling Report,” Yeşilay stated that gambling-related cases now account for 28% of all addiction consultations. The report emphasized the serious psychological consequences associated with gambling addiction: “an increase in cases of shame, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts.”
Erdoğan has tasked Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz with preparing a comprehensive action plan involving ministries, financial regulators, and law enforcement agencies – potentially including sanctions against foreign governments.
“Our law enforcement, judiciary, and MASAK will act as one,” Erdoğan said. “We will identify every financial path used by illegal gambling syndicates – whether through banks, crypto, or payment platforms – and close them permanently. Turkey will no longer be a playground for foreign betting barons.”
Party officials confirmed that work has already begun to identify “international networks” operating from the jurisdictions of Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Georgia, which are accused of laundering millions of euros in illicit gambling proceeds.
However, skeptics doubt that the government will go “all the way” with the promised cleanup. Years of inaction have allowed parts of Turkey’s financial system to become intertwined with illegal money flows, creating entrenched networks that extend beyond the gambling industry.
A key example is the Papara scandal, in which the CEO of the Istanbul-based fintech app stands accused of facilitating more than ₺12.9 billion (€340 million) in illegal transactions through 26,000 user accounts.
These revelations have intensified calls for a transparent investigation into Turkey’s financial and technology sectors and increased pressure on regulators to expose the wider ecosystem that allowed such vast sums to circulate unchecked.
But is the AKP government truly prepared to expose all those involved in enabling illegal online gambling?
Opposition figure Muharrem İnce of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) accused Erdoğan’s government of acting “only after public embarrassment.”
“We warned about this back in 2023,” İnce said. “If the State truly wanted to stop online gambling, it could have done so in three days. Instead, years of negligence allowed families to be ruined and young people to take their own lives. Now they talk of action as if this is new.”
Other opposition parties, including the Yenilik Partisi (Innovation Party), have also expressed doubts that the ruling party will dig deeply enough. Some suggest that “political sensitivities” will prevent investigations from reaching high-level financiers or networks linked to the party.
Erdoğan’s order is being accompanied by immediate measures: new telecommunications and banking restrictions, expanded financial monitoring, and coordination between MASAK, BTK (the Information and Communication Technologies Authority), and the Interior Ministry.
However, critics warn that deeply rooted networks and billions circulating through informal channels could make the task far more difficult than the political will driving it.
As elections draw nearer, the question remains: Can Erdoğan win his ‘war’ against online gambling – or will it become yet another unfulfilled promise in Turkey’s long struggle against the black market?
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