Creating a successful online casino business — a guide for Turkish investors 2025

Aside from certain exceptions, gambling in Turkey is banned. So what options are there for Turkish investors and entrepreneurs interested in the iGaming space? Are there any open doors? This article breaks down how they can get their online casino or sportsbook started.

Turkish gambling market overview

Gambling in Turkey is tightly controlled. Despite widespread domestic interest, gambling is banned, aside from limited exceptions — the state-run lottery, Milli Piyango, and the state-owned betting company, the IDDAA. This has been the case since land-based casinos were made illegal in 1998, a measure the government took to combat money laundering.

But while the nation has disallowed legal avenues for the land-based and online gambling market in Turkey, these measures have certainly not quelled Turkish players’ appetites. For example, in 2009 it was estimated that 25% of Swedish gambling firm Betsson's revenues came exclusively from Turkish players.

Regardless, for the stability and growth potential of your business, we suggest focusing on other markets.

Legal requirements and compliance

As mentioned, gambling laws in Turkey prevent you from starting a legal online casino or iGaming business in the country aimed at Turkish players. Instead of worrying about Turkish citizens who could land in hot water with authorities if they visit your site, it’s better to focus on players in countries where online gambling is completely legal (protecting yourself from legal consequences at the same time). Instead of staying domestic, Turkish entrepreneurs have the option of establishing an offshore business and targeting a market with less strict legal requirements.

Now that you understand the landscape for gambling and iGaming in Turkey, we can move on to more important matters, such as how Turkish entrepreneurs can legally and effectively establish an international online gambling business. This process involves many steps, like creating a business plan, going through the casino licensing process, and ensuring your business meets all online gambling compliance standards.

Let’s take a closer look at a step-by-step guide.

Six steps for starting an online casino business as a Turkish investor

As you start to consider the international possibilities for your business, take a look at a step-by-step framework for creating one. Before we go over the steps, we want to underline that this entire process requires patience, enthusiasm, risk, business acumen, and of course, a substantial financial commitment.

With all that mentioned, you will be well on your way to starting a successful online casino or sportsbook. We’ll lay out the steps briefly below and then go over them in more detail afterward.

1. Obtain a gambling license

While obtaining a casino license in Turkey is impossible, there are a plethora of gambling licenses available worldwide. Some of the most popular places to obtain gambling licenses for Turkish investors include Curacao, Malta, Isle of Man, Alderney, Gibraltar, Kahnawake, Belize, etc.

The costs, locations, application processes, length of licensing periods, types of gambling activity, and areas that these licenses cover are all vastly different, which is why a lot of research is involved. One thing that gambling licenses do have in common is that they require in-depth explanations regarding their pros, cons, and application process.

Out of the six steps we have listed here, the gambling license application itself is probably the most important and most in-depth discussion.

Which jurisdiction should I get a gambling license in? The jurisdiction you choose will be based on the pros and cons of the license that is specific to your business. To help you pick the one that’s best for you, we have covered a variety of licensing jurisdictions in depth on our website, which we encourage you to spend some time researching. You can familiarize yourself with the most popular licensing locations by clicking here.

In particular, we often advise Turkish investors to obtain the Curaçao gaming license. It’s fairly easy to obtain, it’s cheaper than other licenses, and it covers a wide range of countries where you can operate in.

How much do gambling licenses cost? Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer to this question. Licenses are all different and each one has its own conditions, clauses, and fees.

The validity period can often vary too. For example, most licenses are valid for just 1 year; however, licenses from Gibraltar last for 5.

The renewal prices of licenses can also vary enormously. Some jurisdictions will want to know your annualized net gaming yield before offering you a renewal.

There’s also the application processing time to think about. Some jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, can take up to 16 weeks to process. Other jurisdictions will require a nonrefundable deposit payment upfront before they process your application (regardless if you are approved or not). Some jurisdictions can even offer you a temporary license that you can use for a limited amount of days, but at a much lower cost.

Some jurisdictions may seem to offer a low-cost license. However, they will also require many elements of certification, verification, and testing of your games and software. All of these will be priced individually and not included in the initial application fee.

As you can see, there is a lot to think about when calculating the prices. The best course of action is to sit down with a notepad and carefully calculate the total prices of different regions that interest you, along with their pros and cons.

Thankfully we have saved you a lot of the legwork by focusing on a variety of areas offering premium licenses. To learn more about gaming licenses in other regions, click here.

2. Register your company in your licensing jurisdiction

This step is closely related to step 1 as you will (normally) need to register your business in your licensing jurisdiction. For Turkish investors, the key takeaway is that you will not be registering your business in Turkey because it isn’t legal under current regulations.

It's crucial to understand the specific legal requirements for casino businesses in the jurisdiction where you plan to register. Much like the license itself, the specific costs and processes needed to do this are different in every location. You don’t necessarily need to reside in the country where you register your business, but being able to access it is something to consider — for example, when it comes to coordinating with your representatives in the jurisdiction and communicating with the licensing authority across time zones.

3. Analyze market demands for your target audience

Your next three steps are research, research, and more research.

The more research and planning you do, the greater chance you will have of your business being a success. This will involve learning everything you can about your target audience — their native language, game preferences, betting habits, preferred payment methods, and more. This will influence your marketing efforts, future business expansion, hiring (especially when it comes to your support team) and other aspects of your business.

With so much to think about when creating a successful online gambling business, the best advice is leave nothing to chance. Your budget should account for every last detail, including unforeseen expenses and areas for future growth.

4. Create a brand concept and marketing strategy

This step is where you will need to apply all of your creativity and business acumen.

With good planning and organization, this might even be taken care of way back at step one, as a business plan is often part of the application requirements for a gaming license. You will certainly need to have completed this step before you can embark on steps 5 and 6.

Developing casino marketing strategies early on is crucial to ensure that your business can stand out — no easy feat in an industry as competitive as iGaming. Even if your business plan begins its life as just a few handwritten notes on a napkin, it’s important to flesh out your ideas and research any potential names you come up with against any existing competition. This will be especially relevant when it comes to digital marketing. To start with, when designing SEO strategies for casinos, you at least need to rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs) for your own brand name.

Hiring professionals for business advice is never a bad idea either, especially when it’s a niche topic such as digital marketing for casinos or casino marketing strategies.

5. Obtain software to create a web-based platform

Platform software is the foundation of your online casino business. Without it, you cannot add games, PSPs, or any other kind of functionality for players. It’s just like building a house — you can’t jump to picking kitchen decor before you’ve laid down a solid foundation.

This might sound quite straightforward. However, there are a lot of factors to consider when creating a website that offers iGaming and secure payment services. You need to choose online casino software that will enable you to offer both a fantastic gaming experience and a secure casino platform to protect both your business and your players.

Also, depending on the licensing jurisdiction you choose, your secure casino platform will also need to pass various operational tests and be certified as compliant. As a general rule of thumb, the more established and reputable the gaming license is, the more stringent the certification tests will be.

6. Integrate games, payment systems (PSPs), and online support teams

It’s easy enough to understand that without games, PSPs, and online support, your business will be going nowhere.

All that research you did in step three will come back to help you now. Market demand will dictate both the games and casino payment solutions that you’ll need to include in your platform. If the payment processing for a casino that you choose is blocked in your target region, your business is doomed from day one, so study the competition to see what methods players successfully use. The same goes for choosing games or languages that players in the region don’t not want or understand — offer games they’ll enjoy in a language they’ll speak. Equally important is setting up 24/7 customer support to address player issues promptly and maintain a positive user experience.

This may all sound quite obvious, but without researching first you could waste months of work and funds on a project that’s going nowhere. So choose wisely and do as much research as you can, and don’t be afraid to hire professionals to support you.

How can Slotegrator help?

For Turkish investors and entrepreneurs, applying for a gaming license in any jurisdiction is a complicated process. Much like any legal process, the best course of action to ensure that you do not waste time or funds is to employ the help of experts to assist you with the application, which is just the beginning of your journey.

There are many other stages in the long road to owning a successful iGaming business, and we are happy to provide solutions covering all aspects of the process.

Rest assured, we have assisted hundreds of applicants to obtain their gaming licenses in numerous jurisdictions since our founding in 2012.

If you’re after the freedom and prosperity you can earn from running your own online casino or sports betting enterprise, then Slotegrator can help you with any stage of your journey.

Whether it’s legal expertise, software, marketing assistance, or overseeing the entire launch, we have proven solutions ready for you to launch a successful iGaming business.