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Turkish report tells about lots of problem gamblers with 88.7% offshore Blask Index
84% of survey participants reported gambling dept.
In January 2026, Enstitü Sosyal published a study of gambling in Turkey built on records from Yeşilay counselling centre YEDAM.
YEDAM is a place where people go for help with addiction, including gambling.
More than 84% survey participants reported gambling debt, and 49.8% owed more than ₺100 000 ($2,000). Among men, 52% borrowed from family and 28% from banks.
Online sports betting was the first product for 65.4% and accounts for 39.7% of recent play. Casino rose from 17.4% on entry to 53.9%.
Other details
The helpline covered April 2020 to April 2025. First assessments cover January 2020–April 2025 and include 14 458 people, 3 767 of them with a social-service form.
The mean age on the assessment file is 34.8 years, and men account for 97%.
The authors ask for deposit limits, wider self-exclusion, a legal definition of “indirect gambling promotion”, tighter rules for youth-facing media, and transaction monitoring shared by MASAK.
MASAK is Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board, the banking regulator and the police.
Turkey limits legal play to the state lottery, Spor Toto/İddaa (has a betting license), Nesine (also has a betting license), and horse racing. Other digital gambling is illegal.
Blask data shows the Turkish Blask Index in September 2026 was 46.8% above September 2025, after a January spike and a summer fade.
Offshore search moved from 80% to 88.7% over that year. Nesine leads the onshore sportsbooks, and its share fell from 9.4% to 4.9%.
Demand after the YEDAM file stayed with unlicensed brands. Whether the legal sportsbooks take any of it back is the open question.