Turkey gambling licence: no online licence

Turkey has no single gambling regulator. Three State bodies each supervise one sector, and no general operator licence exists. Spor Toto is the only authority for sports betting; MPİ organises lotteries and other cash-prize games and supervises casino-type games, which are banned; the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry monitors and audits horse racing.

• Once the Fund took the lottery and racing licences, the State bodies cannot grant another licence for the same games.
• The head-dealer tender covers the whole country as one lot (Law 5738 art 4(3)). For online and fixed dealers no number is written in the law; the Teşkilat decides how many.
• Advertising is supervised by the Advertising Board (Reklam Kurulu) of the Ministry of Trade; the financial intelligence unit is MASAK, and Law 5549 makes anyone active in betting and games of chance an obliged party.
• The Constitutional Court (decision of 7 December 2023) annulled parts of Law 7258; the annulment took effect on 5 June 2025, and Law 7551 re-enacted the Spor Toto dealer-powers paragraph from 1 July 2025.

Laws that apply

• Law 7258 of 29 April 1959 (sports betting) and Law 5738 (the Spor Toto tendering law); Spor Toto Uygulama Yönetmeliği (online dealers, rewritten on 26 November 2024 and amended on 13 February 2026)
• KHK 320 (MPİ, the lotteries, non-cash prize draws) and the MPİ licence regulation (Şans Oyunları Lisansı Yönetmeliği)
• Law 6132 (horse racing) and the horse-race betting regulation
• Law 5602 (games-of-chance tax and public share) · Law 7338 (tax on prizes) · Law 3065 (VAT)
• Penal Code art 228 · Law 1072 · Law 5326 · Law 5651 arts 8 and 8/A (access blocking) as amended by Law 7590 of 24 July 2026
• Presidential Circular 2025/18 of 31 October 2025 (Action Plan 2025-2026 against illegal online betting, games of chance and gambling)

No B2C licence exists for a private sportsbook, casino or lottery, and no B2B licence exists for suppliers. The table lists each product, its status and, where a product is illegal, how it reaches players anyway.

• Sports betting: only joint-stock companies established under Law 6102 may be online dealers, no one under 18 may play, and credit or credit-card funding is not allowed.
• The online-dealer licence is valid until the Teşkilat cancels it; the dealer contract signed with it runs for a fixed term of at most 10 years.
• Penalties for running these games without legal authority: 3 to 5 years' imprisonment and a judicial fine up to 10,000 days; giving access from Turkey to games run abroad, 4 to 6 years; mediating money transfers, 3 to 5 years; encouraging play by advertising, 1 to 3 years.

The one lawful online route for a private company is to become an online dealer of Spor Toto, or to join the single head-dealer tender. The Regulation sets who may be licensed and what must be shown, and leaves the filing procedure to the Teşkilat's board.

• Applicant: a joint-stock company (anonim şirket) established in Turkey under Law 6102. The rules provide for no branch.
• Foreign owners: no nationality test applies to shareholders. In the head-dealer tender a foreign company can take part only through a joint venture with Turkish joint-stock companies (Law 5738 arts 2, 9).
• Shareholders of 10% or more, board members and senior managers with authority to manage and represent the company must not be bankrupt, must have no listed conviction and must not have been in a banned or restricted gambling business in the last five years. All shares must be registered and the ownership structure transparent.
• A transfer of the licence or any change of ownership structure needs the Teşkilat's written permission; a breach cancels the licence.
• Minimum capital: the online dealer's is an amount to be fixed by the Teşkilat's board and is not published. The national lottery licence needs paid-in capital of at least TRY 5,000,000.
• A bank contract set by the Teşkilat is needed for collecting stakes and paying prizes; the dealer pays the Teşkilat from bank accounts in its own name. No local office or resident director is required by name.
• Grounds for refusal in the tender include bars from public tenders, conviction of partners or board members for listed offences, bankruptcy or liquidation, and final tax or social-security debts. The Regulation does not state reasons for refusing an online-dealer application.

No application or annual licence fee is written for the online dealer. The costs are a guarantee, a contract fee and the dealer's share of revenue.

• The online dealer keeps a commission on weekly sales after VAT, games-of-chance tax and other taxes, at a fixed or tiered rate the Teşkilat sets, and pays the rest to the Teşkilat.
• The Teşkilat sets a minimum level of sales. An online dealer under it has its commission cut by half for a week, and three times in a calendar year allows the licence to be cancelled.
• The online dealer's guarantee is not returned while the licence is valid; after cancellation it is returned within three months of the dealer's request and of the reconciliation of accounts, less its debts to the Teşkilat.
• Costs of connection and performance tests and of audits by independent audit firms or the head dealer fall on the online dealer.
• No total first-year or annual regulatory cost is published.

Games-of-chance tax under Law 5602 art 6 is charged on the revenue from every game of chance organised under Laws 6132, 7258 and KHK 320. The base is revenue after VAT is taken out: the amount collected from participants, with prizes not deducted.

• The President may raise the games-of-chance rates up to double, lower them to half, or restore them (art 6(4)); no later decision appears in the consolidated text as of 9 November 2026.
• The games-of-chance tax is declared and paid monthly, by the 20th of the following month, to the tax office.
• Besides it there is a public share (kamu payi) paid to the general budget quarterly, calculated on net revenue less investment and operating costs.
• VAT applies: organising and playing games of chance is a taxable activity under VAT Law 3065 art 1(3)(b).

No named technical standard or accepted-laboratory list is set. The binding checks are the Teşkilat's and MPİ's own.

• The online dealer must show, by a report from an independent audit firm or from the head dealer, that its infrastructure is adequate and its software compatible with the central betting system. This is proved after the contract is signed; the Teşkilat can test before and during operation and does not let a dealer start where errors are found.
• The national lottery licensee must choose an internationally recognised standard for its system controls (MPİ licence regulation art 23(6)).
• Minimum age: 18. Online dealers may not let under-18s play. No credit or credit-card funding.
• No national self-exclusion register, mandatory deposit or loss limit, reality check or cooling-off period exists in the instruments searched.
• Prizes not presented within one year of the draw are not paid.

Gambling advertising is lawful only for the State operators. For everyone else it is a crime.

• Encouraging people 'by advertising or otherwise' to play betting or games of chance without legal authority carries 1 to 3 years' imprisonment and up to 3,000 days' fine (Law 7258 art 5(1)(ç); KHK 320 art 52).
• Online advertising of casino-type games is banned (Regulation art 5(2)).
• Since 13 February 2026 Spor Toto may have its online dealers carry out marketing of its bets, limited to sport-related media, not aimed at under-18s and not harming society's values.
• An online dealer may not send calls, SMS, letters or e-mail to persons other than its own subscribers to encourage play.
• No pre-clearance of advertisements by the Advertising Board exists; control is after publication. The Board can stop an advertisement, fine, and order content removal or access blocking.
• MPİ's marketing policy requires the line 'SORUMLU OYNAYALIM: Şans oyunları risk içerebilir.' in all its marketing.

AML duties bind the State organisers and their dealers; enforcement matters more to an operator with no licence route.

• Blocking: a judge, or in urgent cases a prosecutor with judicial approval within 24 hours, decides removal or blocking on suspicion of the offences of Penal Code art 228 and Law 7258 (Law 5651 art 8). The President of the Siber Güvenlik Başkanlığı can also decide blocking ex officio. Where a direct administrative decision cannot be taken, MPİ applies to the criminal judgeships of peace under Law 5651 art 8/A for applications, platforms and social-media accounts.
• Players: an administrative fine of TRY 5,000 to 20,000 imposed by the highest local civil administrative authority (Law 7258 art 5(d); KHK 320 art 52(1)(d)), and under Law 5326 art 34 a fine of TRY 1,000 plus confiscation of the winnings. These are the amounts the laws print; fixed fines are revalued each year. This is not a crime.
• Hosting, access and content providers that do not carry out a blocking decision face a fine of TRY 10,000 to 100,000 as printed in Law 5651 art 8(11).
• Premises are sealed for up to three months, and goods and proceeds are confiscated.
• The Teşkilat cancels an online dealer's licence by its own decision, without notice, in the cases of art 32(1): for example no play on more than 15 days in a calendar year, selling to under-18s, illegal betting, unreported sales, or late payment three times in a calendar year.
• The national lottery licensee must file an annual activity report with financial statements by the end of April and an approved copy of the annual independent audit report within 30 days.

Turkey does not license B2B suppliers. Suppliers work as contractors of the rights-holder.

• For sports betting the central betting system, risk-management centre and head-dealer services are one tendered contract (Law 5738 art 3(1)(a)-(c)).
• There is no register or approval of game providers as a class. What is approved is the contractor and, for the online channel, each dealer.
• The Spor Toto game plan and the lottery games are approved by the State body: a lottery licensee must submit a game design for each new game to MPİ.
• Games run by others are unlawful (Law 7258 art 5).

There is no route to a private operator licence, so none is shown. The steps below are the route as of 9 November 2026 for a company that wants to be a Spor Toto online dealer.

1. 01

   Accept that no private licence exists

   Law 7258 art 5; KHK 320 art 52

   Online casino and poker have no licence, and sports betting, lotteries and racing are State rights. Offering any other gambling to players in Turkey is an offence.

2. 02

   Form a Turkish joint-stock company

   Law 6102; Uygulama Yönetmeliği art 26(3)

   Shareholders of 10% or more, board members and senior managers must pass the listed tests, all shares must be registered and the structure transparent.

3. 03

   Apply to the Spor Toto Teşkilat

   no window or deadline written for an online dealer

   The Regulation leaves the filing procedure to the Teşkilat's board. For the head-dealer tender the notice is published at least 30 days before the tender date.

4. 04

   Lodge the guarantee and sign the contract

   tender: 3% provisional and 6% final

   An online dealer's guarantee and contract fee are amounts the Teşkilat sets before the licence is issued. The dealer contract runs for at most 10 years.

5. 05

   Prove the system and operate

   after the contract is signed

   Show with an independent audit report that your software works with the central betting system. The licence is valid until the Teşkilat cancels it; there is no renewal by application.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 9 Nov 2026.