Online poker in Turkey facilitated by foundations despite ban on Internet gambling

In 2006, the Turkish government put into effect a regulation that banned playing online gambling games and made it illegal for firms to provide these services to Turkish citizens under domestic law.

A recent police operation against the Texas Hold’em Play Cards Foundation in İstanbul’s Etiler neighborhood resulted in the foundation being closed down. Police officials said there were playing cards at the foundation, which indicated that it was being used for gambling. Plus there was a huge amount of money going into the pockets of the gamblers. Gamblers prefer to establish such foundations in order to evade police detection.

In July, a coffee house people used for gambling in İstanbul’s Güngören neighborhood was sealed off by police. However, the owners of the establishment reopened the venue under the name of Texas Hold’em Play Cards Strategy and Thought Foundation. Güngören residents said the place had been raided by police numerous times over the past 15 years but it continued to be a venue for gambling.

One of the residents, who did not reveal his name, said: “The Haznedar neighborhood [of Güngören] is known as the Las Vegas of İstanbul. People come here every night in luxury cars. There is also prostitution here. Officials turn a blind eye to this and ignore our complaints. They changed the name of a casino to a foundation. Would they allow me to establish a foundation with the name ‘The Foundation to Support Terrorism’?” Casinos were banned in Turkey in 1996.