Turkey’s Internet Poker Market
In the 1990s, when tourism in Turkey was booming, the gaming sector also took up. Yet as a result, a third of the residents developed gambling addictions. As a result, in 1997, the government made the unpopular decision to outright outlaw casinos throughout the country of Turkey. Only in the tourist hotspots did such establishments persist.
A further development saw the opening of a dedicated gambling zone in Northern Cyprus, which is currently home to the annual Merit Poker and Triton Poker tournament series.
Poker rooms in Turkey have been illegal since 2007.
IDDAA is the only online gambling platform that complies with local law. Using other platforms to play is illegal. A large number of PREMIER ROOMS have withdrawn from the market (pokerstars, partypoker, 888poker, iPoker Network).
Isolating and blocking online poker users
Aside from the existence of fines and the National Internet Security System, which saves all the addresses that Turkish users go to in their browsers, the seriousness of the approach to the prohibition of online gambling is expressed through the blocking of poker room websites and, in some cases, even their clients.
Turkish ISPs block access to all gaming sites save those licensed by the IDDAA.
The locations of the rooms are inaccessible, and the customers of some of those rooms may have difficulties in their job as a direct result of their conduct (Chico Network, Coin Poker, Everygame Poker, Vbet Poker). There are never any issues with customers on the top sites catering to people in this nation.
Ways of Deposit and Withdrawal
Due to the country’s strict regulations on gambling, Turkish poker players have just one viable payment option: virtual currency.
Due to its high exchange rate in comparison to other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC) has the highest charge per transaction and is not recommended for amounts under $1,000.
Here, the fee to send hundreds of dollars worth of the stablecoin Tether (ERC20 network) or ether is just a few dollars.
Other cryptocurrencies (Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Ripple) allow for relatively tiny transactions with a fee size of several cents (or, in the case of Litecoin, $0,20-$0,30). This group is also responsible for USDT on the TRC20 network.
Paying taxes on a prize.
Due to the total prohibition of playing via offshore sites, it is not possible to pay taxes on online winnings in Turkey.
For tax purposes, many seasoned live poker players choose to relocate to a country with more favorable gaming tax laws. People that engage in online rolling do not flaunt their money or try to legitimize it via other means.
Top Turkish Athletes
Orpen-Kisacikoglu
Entrepreneur and full-time UK resident Orpen Kisacikoglu tops the list of the country’s most successful poker players. He has earned $8,964,914 from live tournaments. The Turk began focusing on high-stakes competition in 2019, and since then he has won the vast majority of them.
Orpen won the €100,000 first-place prize at the partypoker MILLIONS Europe series in Rozvadov in August 2019, making it the first time he has cashed for more than $1 million.
In May of 2022, he defeated Orpen Kisacicoglu for his greatest victory to that point. He earned $2,130,921 for finishing second in the €100K Maine Triton Poker Series.
The largest amount won in an online event by a Turkish player was $775,780, won by Koray Korkmaz, a mid-limit MTT grinder with almost 4,000 online tournament cashes. Like many of his compatriots, he likes spending time in Northern Cyprus to go practicing sports. Koray has amassed approximately $500,000 in tournament earnings at this site.
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