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Online Gambling Persists Despite Turkey’s Ban

Posted on April 1st, 2010

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In 2006, the Turkish government enforced a law forbidding its people to gamble online which entailed prohibiting Internet gambling operators to provide Turkish citizens access to their sites and enforcing a ban on dealings with online gambling sites through Turkish banks and credit card companies. The weekend edition of Turkey’s newspaper, the Sunday Zaman carried an article about the nation’s ban and how some European online firms have found ways to go on providing their services to Turkish citizens.

Gokhan Ahi, a Turkish legal expert was cited in the newspaper as saying that although there is an existing ban on Internet gambling, online gaming operators like Betsson have cleverly dodged filters and successfully carried on with their activities. The newspaper stated that the Turkish Information Technologies and Communications Board (BTK) attempted to stop access to Betsson’s site, but the firm managed the interference by constantly changing IP addresses which made it extremely difficult for the Board to pursue the site.

“At the time of writing, Betsson had added the digits 509 to the end of its URL. Ahi stated that this number would change constantly: ‘When the BTK would block 310, they would default to 309, and if that was blocked, they would quickly change to another number. Ahi reiterated the difficulty for the Turkish authorities to block such sites due to the complexity of the Internet and stated that companies like Betsson would do whatever is necessary to make sure that their illegal and enormous revenues are not hindered by technological barriers. Even with the banking restrictions, Ahi noted that gamblers increasingly use one-time-use debit cards that can easily be used on these Web sites without much difficulty,” the newspaper reported.

Swedish Analyst Martin Arnell was also cited in the newspaper as claiming that another online gambling company, the UK-based Sportingbet also provides online gambling services to Turkey. In 2008 two Turkish nationals working for Sportingbet in the UK entered Turkey and were held in custody by Turkish authorities. While Sortingbet’s business activities with Turkey have been cut back, Arnell said it is still functioning in the Turkish market. He said the company’s SuperBahis website still accepts online bets for football games. “They could be saying and reporting that they are leaving, but they are still there.”

The newspaper feature continued to report that Betsson continues to take chances by getting around filters and restrictions, because, according to Goldman Sachs, more than 26 percent of its revenues come from the Turkish market. Analyst Arnell said ceasing its Turkish operations which contribute a substantial share to Betsson’s overall market, could bring about a large reduction in the company’s profits and share prices.

Betsson maintains that there is nothing illegal in their activities because the company does not operate from Turkey, but is based in Malta. Betsson also contends that based on EU’s rules on free movement of goods and services within the Union, the company’s dealings with Turkish citizens are within the law, but Arnell says Turkey is not yet an EU member, thus Betsson could not use this to base its legal argument.