Turkey’s opposition calls for unified gambling regulation
Turkey’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) has again raised the issue of reforming gambling and illegal betting regulations. The party argues for consolidating fragmented provisions into a single law, establishing a dedicated supervisory authority, and tightening financial oversight.
What the opposition is proposing
In a published “Action plan to combat gambling and illegal betting”, the CHP focuses on institutional restructuring. The party proposes:
- setting up a parliamentary investigative commission into the causes and consequences of addiction and illegal betting;
- expanding the legal definition of gambling;
- introducing restrictions on legal gambling advertising;
- making responsible-gambling principles a mandatory standard.
A central element of the plan is to bring existing rules under one law and create a separate regulatory and supervisory body (the “Kumar Düzenleme ve Denetleme Kurumu”). On the financial side, the plan calls for stronger inter-agency oversight of money flows linked to the illegal segment and expanded powers for Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), including restoring specialist roles.
The CHP also points to a contradiction in the current model: while private online casinos and gambling are formally prohibited (casinos since 1998 and non-state online betting since 2006), the state allows a limited number of platforms to operate under strict control. These include the Milli Piyango lottery and Şans Girişim, which runs İddaa as the sole official operator of fixed-odds sports betting.
The smartphone “entry threshold”
The CHP also highlights how easy access to gambling via mobile phones blurs the line between legal and illegal offers. Murat Emir, Deputy Chair of the CHP parliamentary group, argues that legal products increasingly serve as a “gateway” into illegal gambling, and that it is unacceptable for a ten-year-old child to have a casino in their pocket.
“Turkey can no longer tolerate a situation where everyone is somehow drawn into gambling through mobile applications, where they direct their last penny, their last cent, into gambling as a gamble.”
Murat Emir, Deputy Chair of the CHP
According to Yeşilay (the Green Crescent), cases of gambling addiction among children and adolescents account for 28% of all registered cases in the country.
Source: Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM).
The government’s approach
On the government side, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the main tools remain website blocking and inter-agency coordination. According to the Anadolu Agency, access was restricted to more than 548,000 illegal betting and gambling websites between 2006 and 2025. In 2024 alone, the number of blocked websites reached 233,000. Of these, 56% were linked to the United States, 17% to Armenia and 6% to the Netherlands.
What the initiative could mean for the market
If the CHP’s proposals are turned into a bill and gain support, regulation could shift from targeted measures – blocking and investigations – to a more formalised system: unified definitions for products and distribution channels, standalone advertising rules, and cross-agency oversight of payment infrastructure.
Ultimately, Turkey may face a strategic choice about what most effectively reduces the illegal segment: stronger supervision of finance and digital channels within the current state-led model, or a broader overhaul of the sector through a single comprehensive law and a regulator responsible for licensing, advertising controls and responsible-gambling standards.
This article was first published in Russian on 9 February 2026.
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