Creative Illegal Gambling in Turkey

Nowadays, people use political parties to cover up illegal gambling in Turkey. The result? Police raids and parties shut down.

As a revolutionary new way to cover up illegal gambling in Turkey, some people invented political parties to host such events. And, many of these affairs ended in police raids. In the past days, there has been another incident: Turkish policemen raided the offices of the Future Party of Turkey, where some illegal gambling was going on. The event happened in the southern region of Adana, in a building that has already been raided a hundred times.

These underground Turkish poker rooms operated under fake political party meetings. “Voters” were only in the building to be informed about the mission of the political party, or so they claimed. The Adana Police Department had to break down the entrance to the building with a sledgehammer, because the illegal gamblers refused to answer the door. Raiding the building became somewhat of a safe bet for the authorities by now, because with each raid, they managed to find something.

Illegal Gambling in Turkey – Political Party style

Funny thing is, in the very same building, the same thing happened during the past few years. Each time, the culprit was a different political party: the Cukurova Labor Union for Workers in the Entertainment and Accommodation Sectors, the Rise of the Nationalist Will Party and the Trust party were all conducting illegal gambling in the same place.

Each party was raided several times, as the Hurriyet Daily News reported. According to the newspaper, “a total of 238 people were fined at the time for gambling in the double-raid, which also covered a district base. Others targeted in the raids were accused of providing a venue for gamblers and collecting unearned money.” To bet on sports in Turkey is legal, but other gambling activities are strictly forbidden. But we must really hand it to these fake parties… they were very inventive!