Castle Busters

About Castle Busters

Earlier this year, Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi called illegal betting a “scourge that corrupts society” and emphasised a move towards tougher enforcement.

According to Çiftçi, the rapid growth of digital payments and cryptocurrencies has transformed illegal betting into a major conduit for money laundering. 

“Casinos, junkets, cryptocurrencies and underground banking are the most critical parts of the money laundering infrastructure that fuels international organised crime,” he said at the time. “The global gambling market will reach $205 billion in 2030.”

What is Castle Busters?

At the time KSA announced: “Providers that made mistakes in the past five years must explain during the application process how they have learned from previous mistakes and how they intend to prevent recurrence. If we find this explanation insufficient, the permit may be denied or additional conditions and restrictions may be imposed.” 

This requirement raised concerns among operators worried that the barriers to entry could have become more restrictive, But at a meeting on the policies last year the regulator assured licensees it was not enforcing a specific strict rule on this.

Speaking to iGB at the time, Bjorn Fuchs, chairman of VNLOK Fuchs noted “there was a sigh of relief going through the room when it was presented”.

About Castle Busters

“Cirsa has incredible knowledge of the market, the consumers in general, also of the business. You will see a company with a huge understanding of the market, of the consumers, with an incredible retail platform, which can be leveraged for online.

Cirsa also holds a presence in Italy, and Angelozzi was asked whether this could cause any regulatory discomfort or revenue attrition.

But he said he was not concerned. “On the Italian antitrust, we don’t think we are in a risky situation because Italy is not the core of this deal and this doesn’t change the level of concentration in the country and will still be below 40% in each relevant market. So we don’t see that.