Online betting staff arrested in Turkey

Arrests of two employees of an online betting company, while on holiday, show that the online gambling world can come crashing down at any moment.

The two unfortunate Sportingbet staff were detained in Turkey, a country with somewhat confused gambling laws, and the same place where British holidaymakers were arrested for playing a game of bingo in a bar last year.

Turkey is cracking down on online gambling, and these latest arrests intend to make a point.  Sports betting is legal in the country, while casinos are not.

Sportingbet is no stranger to controversy – or to the cells.  Chairman Peter Dicks was also arrested back in 2006 in New York, when the US started to get tough on online gambling sites.  Dicks was eventually let off with no charges.

The sports betting company operates a Turkish betting site, called Superbahis, although operations are all run outside of the country, to get round the Turkish laws.   With operations in Guernsey and support in Ireland, this company thought they had covered their backs.

Fellow gambling site PartyGaming recently withdrew from the Turkish market, concerned about exactly these issues.