The Turkish Ministry of Customs and Trade has issued a fresh set of guidelines on which types of machines may be permitted in the country. All gambling devices are banned, but also it continues to ban pinball games and football tables.
There is nothing clear about prize machines, either the high-value prize games or cranes, which remain a grey area, but the regulation passes over them simply by saying that a decision would be made by “the relevant Commission.” This is interpreted as a committee of lawyers, mechanical engineers and the local Bureau of Morality of the police department.
Nor does the regulation make any specific statements about ticket redemption games, which therefore also remain a grey area.
The regulations have been issued in the form of a General Customs Notification, effectively preventing any banned games from entering the country.
Hakan Arsan (pictured) of leading Turkish operating company Delta, said: “There still exist a great deal of unclear and conflicting regulations, but when compared with what we have had in the past, I think the new notification will mean that some of the confusion which has existed at the customs point may be removed.”
Turkey’s original laws concerning which machines may be used in the country date back to 1968 when gambling machines and amusement machines were operated in the same locations and were thus banded together; and that included, at that time, football tables and pinball games.
