Turkish Authorities Arrest 13 as Crack Down on Illegal Gambling Continues

Turkish prosecutors and authorities have moved against the illegal gambling sector once again, with the latest such campaign leading to the arrest of Papara’s owner. Papara is a digital payment platform that is said to have facilitated payment transactions to unregulated gambling sites.

Türkiye Moves to Shutter Illegal Gambling as Arrests Continue

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has outlined the case against Ahmed Faruk Karsli, who owns the company, and others who have all been arrested in relation to a criminal organization. The prosecutor’s office did not clarify what Karsli’s supposed role in the organization is or if there is any.

However, as part of a litany of charges, among which are “membership in a criminal organization,” “money laundering,”  and violations of the country’s gambling laws, Papara is accused of becoming a “significant tool for financial illegal betting and gambling crimes.”

Prosecutors insisted that Papara had become one of Türkiye’s most-used platforms for the facilitation of the alleged transactions. The platform made it possible to move money in and out of illegal betting and gambling sites.

A total of 274 different bank accounts were used to transact the money on Papara, and the proceeds were then directed to various cryptocurrency wallet addresses. Authorities have been able to identify 16.

Prosecutors said in a statement that Papara had an understanding with illegal betting organizations to process the payments, which is why Karsli was arrested. Papara collected fees for each of the transactions, which was its incentive to continue doing business with the websites, prosecutors alleged.

Payment Providers on the Hook in Türkiye’s Crackdown on Illegal Gambling

This is the latest development against the illegal gambling sector in Türkiye, following similar moves against supposed bad actors over the past several weeks. In March, the country similarly targeted payment providers over the fact that they had been used to facilitate illegal gambling, according to the country’s authorities.

Police arrested 52 people, including Erkan Kork, chair of BankPozitif and digital payments firm PayFix.