Exploring Turkey's Poker Scene Amidst Gambling Laws

Turkey’s population is about 99% Muslim. Since in Islam gambling, referred to as “maisir”, is forbidden, it’s no surprise that currently land based casinos are completely banned in the country.

However, the situation is actually a lot more complicated.

Turkey legalized casinos in 1990. However, in July 1996, Ömer Lütfü Topal, known as the “casino king” in Turkey, was murdered. Topal owned 20 casinos. Rumors circulated that the wife of Ozer Ciller, the Deputy Prime Minister, had him killed.

Shortly after, in December 1996, a complete casino ban was announced by Ciller, partially because of money laundering accusations. The Turkish casino industry was generating $2 billion yearly and was employing 20,000 people at the time.

Evidently, with the prohibition, gambling didn’t disappear completely. There’s an active black market for it. You can take part in some poker games in a good amount of underground card rooms and private games.

Some other forms of gambling remained legal, however. Turkey still runs a state lottery. Also, the state-owned online sportsbook IDDAA is allowed to offer sports betting, most of their selection being soccer.

If you take a look at the most successful Turkish players on Hendon, none of their results actually come from tournaments played in Turkey. Northern Cyprus, however, which is a Turkish-controlled de facto state, has plenty of commercial casinos – thus Cyprus is a popular destination for Turkish poker players.

Famous Turkish Poker Players

Orpen Kisacikoglu is the best Turkish live tournament winner of all time, according to the Hendon database. He has cashed for a total of $4.844 million during his career. His biggest score is a €905,937 payday from August 2019, when he won the €100,000 partypoker LIVE Super High Roller in Rozvadov. He defeated a number of poker superstars at the final table – Cary Katz, Kristen Bicknell and Ben Heath were bested by him that day.

Second on the Turkish all time money list is Akin Tuna with $1.317 million. He won a $10K Bellagio Cup for $430,000 in July 2019, that is his biggest single live tournament cash to date. He also has a European Poker Tour title.

As for online poker, Ozgur “PhapLap” Arda tops the list with $3.050 million in lifetime online MTT earnings. He won a $215 NLHE WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) event for $135,039 in September 2013. He’s also cashed for an additional $733,708 in live tournaments.