A comprehensive new report from Turkey's most prominent public health organisation has uncovered a deeply alarming link between the country's growing gambling
A comprehensive new report from Turkey’s most prominent public health organisation has uncovered a deeply alarming link between the country’s growing gambling addiction crisis and a high rate of suicide attempts. The “Gambling Report 2025,” published by Yeşilay (The Green Crescent), is a stark warning that the social and psychological harms of illegal gambling are reaching a critical level.
The report’s most devastating finding is that “around 20% of individuals with gambling addiction attempt suicide - a rate higher than that seen with any other form of addiction.” This statistic provides the most powerful evidence yet of the severe human cost of the country’s sprawling and largely unchecked black market for online gambling.
According to the Yeşilay report, the problem of gambling addiction in Turkey has “intensified” since the COVID-19 pandemic, a change driven almost entirely by the shift to easily accessible digital platforms, both licensed and illegal. The prevalence is high, with an estimated 1-in-10 Turkish consumers over the age of 15 having gambled at least once in the past month.
The report flags early exposure as a major public health concern, with evidence of individuals as young as 15 engaging with gambling, well below the legal age of 18. This trend of youth gambling is directly linked to the rise of online casinos, mobile betting apps, and the blurring of lines between gaming and gambling through products like loot boxes.
The damning findings from Yeşilay-an NGO that works closely with the state-will put immense pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government. The report comes just weeks after Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz himself admitted at a government meeting that online gambling “remains a blind spot that must be addressed.”
This admission of a policy failure has been seized upon by the political opposition. Former government minister and now opposition leader Ali Babacan has repeatedly claimed that any serious investigation into illegal gambling would “expose networks tied to Erdoğan’s inner circle.” These accusations have been fuelled by major scandals, such as the one involving the fintech app Papara, which was alleged to have processed over €340 million in illicit betting transactions.
The Yeşilay report, while not directly political, provides a powerful, data-driven argument that the government’s current “blind spot” on regulation is allowing a public health crisis to spiral out of control. While the government has called for a new action plan against the black market, critics remain skeptical that it will act decisively against an industry that is allegedly protected by powerful interests.
