The chairman of the non-governmental organization "Green Crescent" (Yeşilay), which is aimed at combating various addictions, Mehmet Dinç warned of a huge increase in cases of gambling addiction in Turkey in recent years, providing data on the number of citizens who have sought help from the organization, the Turkish news agency DHA reported, quoted by BTA.
“The Green Crescent“ was founded in 1920 in Istanbul, and the organization's goal is to help Turkish citizens in the fight against various addictions, such as smoking, alcohol and drug use, gambling, etc.
“We are facing a great threat, a danger that has reached a critical point in our country. "A disaster that has taken on catastrophic proportions," Dinç commented yesterday during a special press conference organized by the "Green Crescent" to draw attention to the problem of gambling in Turkish society.
In his speech, Dinç cited data published by the Green Crescent Advisory Center (YEDAM), which showed that applications for assistance for people with gambling addiction increased from just 37 in 2019 to 5,748 in 2025, marking a 155-fold increase in six years.
Data on the age distribution of people who sought help from the organization revealed that the problem is concentrated among people of working age. Almost 80 percent of those seeking help are between the ages of 20 and 40, with 36.7 percent between the ages of 20 and 30 and 43.4 percent between the ages of 30 and 40, the data also shows.
“These figures are just the “tip of the iceberg“. Behind them lies the gambling addiction that has not yet reached us“, Dinç warned during the press conference, calling for large-scale measures to curb gambling addiction in the country. “First of all, we need to reach a consensus on the issue, we need to ban advertisements, we need to limit access channels, and we need to hold people who encourage this accountable with serious sanctions“, Dinç added.