Officials to Privatize Gambling in Turkey

The Finance Minister said privatizing sports betting and horse racing will help increase the state budget, but religious groups oppose gambling.

Turkish authorities want to privatize the state’s Sports Toto and Horse Racing Authority, estimating that this would yield $10 billion in revenue. Even though Turkish gambling laws limit options to sports betting and lottery, the news has caused a stir among religious groups, who say that all forms of gambling should be forbidden.

“We are faced with the reality of gambling gripping Turkey in the guise of games of chance,” Milli Gazete wrote. “The government intends to privatize the games of chance to wash off its hands. This would amount to saying, we don’t do it as a state, but you go ahead with the private sector. People will be further encouraged through a series of new games and television ads.”

Lottery taken over by Net Şans-Hitay

Privatization would help Turkey’s gambling industry grow, but the state’s online and mobile betting market is still underdeveloped.

The 88-year-old lottery Milli Piyango was the first one to be privatized earlier in August. The service was taken over by a Turkish consortium who bid a bid of $2.755 billion for it. Under its new license, Net Şans-Hitay will be operating the lottery for the next 10 years, getting a 25% share of the annual turnover and 28% of the gross revenue.

Mehmet Nuri Yilmaz, former head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate told reporters: “They privatize everything, but even then the government still benefits from the games of chance. It makes no difference if they are run by the government or privatized, they are equally illegitimate.”

“The state doesn’t care what is legitimate and illegitimate,” Yilmaz added. “It is after the money, no matter where it comes from.”