6.2 Billion TL in Money Flow Uncovered in Gebze Prosecutor's Betting Operation

In an operation coordinated by the Gebze Public Prosecutor's Office and conducted by the Kocaeli Provincial Police Directorate's Cyber Crimes Department, 29 of 36 suspects identified as intermediaries for illegal betting and gambling sites were arrested.

According to investigation documents reported by Ekonomi, a Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) report tracked the suspects' account movements on a daily basis between 2023-2025. Over the two-year period, 722,235 separate transactions totaling 6 billion 235 million 761 thousand 905 lira in money transfers were identified. This figure means that approximately 8.5 million lira per day — hundreds of times the annual earnings of seasonal workers earning less than a thousand dollars annually — was transferred through underground channels.

Residences and workplaces belonging to suspects identified as owners of 11 companies with no partnership ties between them were searched simultaneously in Kocaeli, Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Aydın, Bursa, Bingöl, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Karaman, Karabük, Samsun, Mardin, Muş, Uşak, and Hakkari; numerous digital materials were seized as evidence.

The investigation was opened under violations of Law No. 7258 on Fixed Odds and Pool Betting Based on Sports Competitions. The Gebze Prosecutor's Office's last major case opened under this law was in 2022; MASAK data was also determinative in that case.