Turkish Lottery joins Erdoğan’s war on illicit gambling

Summary

Milli Piyango İdaresi (MPİ), Turkey’s national lottery office, has formally joined President Erdoğan’s 2025–2026 Action Plan to combat illegal online gambling. MPİ chair Ekrem Candan submitted a dossier of 420,000 criminal complaints and presented evidence on 239,000 domains to MASAK, the Financial Crimes Investigation Board. MASAK — now coordinating inter‑ministerial enforcement — reports blocking thousands of servers and advertising sites and tracing substantial financial flows (₺2.2bn in 2024; ₺3.6bn so far in 2025). The plan mobilises multiple ministries to tighten digital blocks, payment and AML controls, prosecutions and oversight of promotional activity, with warnings to jurisdictions hosting illicit operators.

Key Points

MPİ delivered 420,000 criminal complaints and evidence to MASAK, identifying 239,000 domains in breach of Turkish law.
Erdoğan’s 2025–2026 Action Plan centralises the crackdown under MASAK with defined roles for Interior, BTK, Treasury & Finance, Justice and Communications.
Since May, authorities say they blocked 10,519 gaming servers and 1,473 advertising sites, and traced large payment flows linked to illicit gambling.
Offshore hosting networks traced to Malta, North Macedonia and Georgia prompted Ankara to warn of “aggressive measures” against enabling jurisdictions.
MPİ emphasises its role as regulator and licensor and pledges to strengthen legal, financial and technological defences to protect citizens and the state lottery.

Context and relevance

This is one of Turkey’s most comprehensive enforcement drives against online gambling in recent years, combining financial intelligence, digital blocking and inter‑ministerial coordination. The move signals heightened AML scrutiny, potential pressure on payment and hosting partners, and greater risk for operators serving Turkish‑facing customers without licences.

Author’s take

Punchy: This is more than rhetoric — it’s a coordinated state campaign. If you work with payments, hosting, advertising or compliance in Turkey, the implications are immediate and material. For everyone else: it’s a clear example of how governments can pair AML tools and tech controls to tackle unlicensed operators.

Why should I read this?

Short and sharp: Turkey’s upped the ante — blocking servers, tracing billions of lira and roping the national lottery into enforcement. If your business touches the Turkish market (or adjacent jurisdictions), this is worth a quick read — we’ve done the slog so you don’t have to.

Source

Source: https://igamingexpert.com/features/turk-lotto-erdogan-war/