"Turkish Government Is Going To War Over Online Gambling"

Yes, it may be true that the country most noted in the news for making online gambling illegal is the United States, but it is not the only country. Bear in mind however, that various countries have different reasons for doing this. One of these countries is Turkey. Turkey has been recently carrying out attempts to stop its citizens from accessing and playing at online gambling sites. The government of Turkey has in fact set up a team of specialists in order to accomplish this. This group consists of members of both the ministry of the Treasury and the ministry of Justice. The Interior Ministry, which is new, was not able to publish any legal directives against the gambling sites. This was because all such sites are located outside of the legal jurisdiction of the country of Turkey.

This however, has not stopped the governmental authorities in Turkey from trying to shut down the sites. They are still seeking ways by which this may be accomplished. One of their approaches is to directly address the various questions with regard to online gambling in Turkey. They are also concerned about the increase in the numbers of people who are visiting online gambling sites. As a result of this, Justice and Development Party (AJP) deputy, Ertugruler Yalcinbayird, has submitted a motion to the Interior Minister Abdulkadirer Aksub that these questions be dealt with. In the motion Yalcinbayird points out that up to thirty gambling sites are presently available to the Turkish people. He asks by what means does the government hope to prevent the Turkish people from gambling. He also suggests that the economic factors connected with gambling in Turkey such as size of online and other kinds of gambling in Turkey be examined. He questions whether or not Turkey in fact has the power to prevent online gambling. He questions what are the forms of precautions that need to be taken.

In response to this motion, Interior Minister Aksub stated that all such online gambling sites and lotteries should be considered as being illegal. Therefore, he states, they are subject to any legal measures that can be used against them once they are detected. In line with this, the Interior Ministry has issued new instructions for fighting online gambling. It is also initiating new investigations into the problem. Aksub admits that Internet gambling sites that operate outside of Turkey are outside of the jurisdiction the Turkish government which cannot do anything to close them down. But, he states that the government has requested that those sites not be made available to residents of Turkey online.

This whole online gambling issue apparently is not new to Turkey. In fact, not long ago, the online gambling issue came to the attention of the government when it was placed on the parliament agenda. This led to deputies asking for new regulation for lottery games in addition to gambling.