Government Wage War Against Virtual Gambling
The Turkish government made efforts to prevent online gambling.
An Interior Ministry team was formed consisting of specialists from the ministries of Justice and Treasury to follow the case. The Ministry was not able to issue any legal directives against the gambling sites as they were hosted outside Turkey. But now, the authorities are trying to find solutions to arrest online gambling and close down these sites. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Ertugrul Yalcinbayir emphasized an increasing rate of virtual gambling in the country and submitted a motion for question to the Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu.
The motion said, "Thirty gambling sites are available for Turkish people. What means can prevent our people from gambling? What is the economic size of online and other kinds of gambling in Turkey? Does Turkey have the power to prevent online gambling? What kinds of precautions can be taken?"
Aksu said in his reply to the motion that the online gambling and lotteries are illegal and therefore legally measures a taken against these sites upon detection. The Ministry has issued directives to prevent online gambling and new investigations on the issue are on the way.
Aksu said that The Ministry cannot prevent online gambling sites as their roots are outside Turkey and in countries where online gambling is not illegal. However, Turkish officials contacted the hosters of these sites and demanded the sites not be made available online in Turkey.
A short while ago, this very same issue had come to the agenda of parliament and deputies had asked for some new regulations for lottery games besides gambling.
2005-07-12
