Casino doors were locked on 12th feb, 1998. However, those who are fond of gambling and who used to prefer to go to Cyprus or Bulgaria, are now starting to stay in the luxurious neighborhoods of Istanbul. Gambling in Turkey was first continued in basements, but has since moved up to villas and residences… All of the 5 star hotels had casinos till 1998.
There were 79 casinos in Turkey. Twenty of them were owned by a man named Ömer Lutfi TOPAL (Born in 1942-Died in1996). He had 6 more casinos outside Turkey. He was dubbed the “casino king” for the gambling ventures that made his fortune.
Topal was gunned down on July 28, 1996 with a Kalashnikov rifle. He left behind a billion USD. Twenty two of his companies were passed onto his son Murat Topal, daughter Elif Topal, and first wife Safiye Belli. His second wife, Birsu Hilal Altıntaş, inherited a few cars, companies, and properties too. After his death, his casinos were run by Ömer Gultekin till feb,1998.
Gambling is prohibited in Religion Islam including a small bet. Practising Muslims never gamble including the national lottery. The main reason for closing the casinos was to stop those who launder their money; also nobody knew how much those 79 casinos’ incomes were so as the amount of tax that they had to pay!
There are no legal casinos in Turkey now but some people think that the casinos are now underground and Turkey lost a lot of money from tourists especially from Israel visiting Turkey just for gambling. There are no casinos in Israel and Israeli tourists used to come to Turkey to by paying US $ 3,000 pp.for a week all inclusive holiday before 1998.
Turkey is on the way to be a full member to the EU. Turkey will be a lull member of the EU sooner or later. I bet you US $ 1,000 that casinos will be opened again then. ?
Betting shops or a national lottery in Turkey?
There are some shops where Turkish people can bet for football games results and you can see the signs ‘SPOR TOTO’ or ‘SPOR LOTO’ and also some shops for betting on the horse races but dog races are not held in Turkey. General Directorate of National Lottery is established in 1930’s, tick¬ets are sold in quarters, halves and full and 9th, 19th, and 29th of every month numbers come out, if the jackpot hits a quarter ticket, jackpot is shared between four people.
The national lottery, which the people try to find 6 numbers out of 49, is not that old for Turkey (since November 1996)… Probably you know the chance to win the jackpot. It is one out of 14 million. Every Saturday evening Turkish people watch TRT-1 (Turkish Radio & Television) to get the results. Or people find out the result every Saturday night by 11 pm. http://www.millipiyango.gov.tr/
Average national lottery jackpot is around a million USD if there is no roll over. The biggest lottery is held on New Year’s Days. The Biggest jackpot was on 31st dec 2009 which was Us $ 20,000,000.-(30,000,000 TL). It is shared by 4 people in Jan.2010.
Gambling in Turkey,