Since January 1, Turkey has blocked access to 47,493 illegal betting sites as authorities expanded a nationwide campaign against online operators and their payment networks. Anadolu Agency, citing sources from the Ministry of Interior, reported that police and gendarmerie units conducted 680 operations, detained 5,629 suspects, secured pretrial detention for 3,231 individuals, and placed another 1,515 under judicial supervision.
Cybercrime units are conducting 24/7 patrols of illegal betting sites, social media advertisements, and digital communication channels with payment systems. Investigators are also monitoring bank accounts, e-money services, and cryptocurrency asset accounts suspected of aiding operators in collecting bets or transferring proceeds from criminal activities.
This nationwide data follows a series of targeted raids conducted in May. Over four operations announced within eight days, legal measures were taken against more than 670 suspects; one investigation in Adana identified cryptocurrency platforms among the alleged channels used to launder betting proceeds.
In a statement published on June 5 by the Istanbul Anatolia Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, seven common cryptocurrency wallets outside Turkey were listed, allegedly receiving regular transfers from an illegal betting organization. Prosecutors estimated the network's total transaction volume at $4 billion (192.37 billion Turkish lira) and reported that all associated bank and cryptocurrency accounts belonging to the suspects had been blocked.
Investigators claim that the network, coordinated by a suspect with the initials İ.Ö.Ö., generated revenue from illegal betting, from matches with predetermined results, and from bets placed through Turkey's legal betting system. The proceeds are alleged to have passed through Grand Bazaar exchange offices and jewelry stores before being transferred to cryptocurrency wallets whose users could not be identified. The investigation was carried out by the prosecutor's office for combating the financing of terrorism and money laundering in cooperation with the financial intelligence agency MASAK.
Prosecutors claim the organization recruited people aged 20-30 with no steady income or commercial activity, periodically transferred around $2,080 (100,000 Turkish lira) to their accounts, and used these accounts as "pool accounts" for betting in exchange for a 1% commission. Even the suspect with the smallest transaction volume had an account turnover of approximately $1.9 million (90 million Turkish lira). Authorities detained 80 suspects in 24 provinces and seized 11 companies, 45 vehicles, 16 houses, and 11 land plots with a total value of about $7.3 million (350 million Turkish lira).
In a separate gendarmerie operation in Adana, 4,742 bank accounts and six cryptocurrency asset accounts belonging to suspects accused of operating illegal bookmakers and facilitating money transfers were blocked. The Ministry of Interior reported that financial intelligence data analysis revealed operational activity on the accounts of 47 suspects in 23 provinces worth about $104 million (5 billion Turkish lira); one shell company, 23 houses, 29 vehicles, and 13 land plots were also seized.
Crime prevention measures have also shifted to real-time disruption. Istanbul prosecutors estimated that approximately $35 billion in illegal bets were placed during the 2022 World Cup, and predicted betting volume for the 2026 tournament to be around $50 billion; they focused their efforts on the final match as the single event with the highest betting volume. Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç stated that the prosecution identified 6,314 bank accounts used in the illegal betting turnover and simultaneously ordered banks to freeze them at the match's kickoff. Turkish media reported the accounts were identified using an AI-powered analysis system known as AVCI.
Tunç noted that the same operation identified 19 offshore "financial companies" managing panel systems integrated with illegal betting sites, and judicial proceedings were initiated against 23 suspects. In February, he stated that Turkey needs to "drain the swamp" rather than rely on individual prosecutions, and instructed the chief prosecutors of all 81 provinces to prioritize coordination, collection of digital evidence, and seizure of assets.
