A court has jailed 22 suspects pending trial in an illegal betting investigation led by prosecutors in the western province of Uşak, in which accounts linked to the suspects showed transactions of more than 5.1 billion lira, Turkish media reported on Oct. 14.
The Uşak Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for 32 people, and gendarmerie teams carried out simultaneous raids on Oct. 9 in eight provinces: Uşak, Ankara, Hatay, Istanbul, Siirt, Antalya, İzmir and Kocaeli. Twenty-five suspects were detained.
After questioning, one suspect was released by prosecutors, two were freed by the court under judicial control measures such as travel bans or reporting duties, and 22 were formally arrested and sent to prison.
Donations used as cover, investigators say
According to the investigation, the proceeds of illegal betting were laundered partly by presenting the money as donations. Legal proceedings were launched against an association allegedly used for this purpose, and four companies said to have been used to launder betting income were placed under the trusteeship of the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF).
Investigators identified 414 bank accounts believed to be linked to illegal betting revenue. Thirty-three of them, holding a total of 333.43 million lira, have been frozen, while checks on the remaining accounts are continuing. The total transaction volume on the suspects’ accounts was put at 5,114,757,833 lira.
The allegations have not yet been tested in court.
A long-running crackdown
Online betting outside the state-licensed system is illegal in Türkiye, where sports betting is legally offered only through licensed operators. Authorities have stepped up operations against unlicensed betting sites in recent years, often targeting networks that use rented bank accounts, shell companies and payment intermediaries to move funds.
Gendarmerie units, which police rural areas and many provincial towns, frequently lead such cases outside big cities. Investigations of this kind commonly involve MASAK, the Finance Ministry’s financial crimes investigation board, which tracks suspicious transactions.
For foreign residents, the case is a reminder that accessing or promoting unlicensed betting sites can carry legal risks in Türkiye, and that lending bank accounts to third parties may expose account holders to investigation.
Sources
Photo: Robot8A / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
