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- October 13, 202617°
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20 arrested in Izmir illegal betting ring using 'student house' cover
An operation across four provinces centered on Izmir uncovered an illegal betting ring operating from houses disguised as student homes. 20 suspects were arrested, and a money flow of 2 billion lira was detected.
Under the coordination of the Izmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, teams from the Provincial Police Department's Cybercrime and Intelligence branches uncovered a new method used by illegal betting rings in an operation across four provinces centered on Izmir. In the method dubbed the 'student house' model, suspects posed as students to rent houses and ran betting operations from them.
Student House Model
The suspects rented nine houses in areas of Izmir's Buca district with high student populations. Because they were aged 18-30 and introduced themselves to landlords as students, they encountered no problems during the rental process. The ring members set up digital infrastructure by bringing phones, tablets, computers, and numerous SIM cards to the houses, and obtained 'admin' access from foreign-based betting sites, turning the houses into betting management centers.
The people staying in the houses were selected by 'reference'; some were university graduates, some were unemployed, and they did not know each other beforehand.
Shift Work and Digital Traces
The suspects organized betting sites in shifts at the addresses disguised as student houses, and managed the money flow between players via Telegram under instructions from ring leaders, investigators found. The investigation file noted that if a betting site was shut down, they would obtain a new URL and redirect players to the new site via VPN within one day.
The ring transferred money arriving at IBAN numbers rented from others to multiple accounts to cover its tracks, and also tried to hide its digital traces by using GSM lines from different countries belonging to different people, authorities determined. Cyber police teams detected a money flow of 2 billion lira, assessed to have been obtained from illegal betting.
Operation and Arrests
In the investigation conducted by the Izmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office for 'violating Law No. 7258 on the Regulation of Betting and Games of Chance in Football and Other Sports Competitions' and 'forming an organization to commit crime,' detention warrants were issued for 36 suspects. On July 21, simultaneous operations were carried out in Izmir, Aydın, Balıkesir, and Tekirdağ; 34 suspects were captured.
Among those referred to court, 20 suspects, including ringleader H. P., were arrested, while 13 were released under judicial control and one was released after giving a statement. During searches, one unlicensed pistol, numerous mobile phones, computers, SIM cards, and cards belonging to banks/payment institutions were seized.
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