The Turkish E-Gaming Law

Dr. Mehmet Bedii Kaya

Türkiye undertook its first comprehensive attempt to regulate electronic games in 2026.

Türkiye has initiated formal regulation of electronic gaming through the drafting of a comprehensive electronic gaming regulation (Turkish E-Gaming Law or Turkish Internet Gaming Act or Digital Game Legislation). This legislative effort represents the country’s first systematic attempt to establish a comprehensive legal framework for the gaming sector.

What is the general scope of the Turkish E-Gaming Law? Does Turkey’s new gaming law covers all entities? The E-Gaming Law, introduces formal definitions for key concepts, including games, game providers, and game developers. It also strengthenes age restrictions and expandes mechanisms of content control. In addition, game development platforms are required by to appoint an official representative within Türkiye.

What are the general obligations imposed by the E-Gaming Law? The E-Gaming Law makes the provision of parental controls mandatory, with these controls designed to manage account settings, monitor children’s in-game purchases, and track usage times. Furthermore, the legislation mandates the establishment of mechanisms capable of swiftly removing illegal or harmful content. To ensure compliance, administrative fines are prescribed for violations of these obligations.

The essential obligations under the Turkish E-Gaming Law can be summarized as follows:

• Local Representation: Major gaming platforms exceeding certain threshold are required to appoint a representative for their Türkiye operations.
• Regulation of Age Ratings and Content: All games made available in Türkiye must have age ratings that align with accepted global standards.
• Parental Controls: Platforms must offer required efficient parental control features
• Removal of Harmful and Illegal Content: In order to get rid of harmful or unlawful content, platforms need to set up quick reaction systems.

The parental control requirement is an important responsibility and requires structural changes. Gaming platforms are expected to undergo a substantial upgrading in order to fulfil this requirement. The main paradigm of the Turkish E-Gaming Law is protection of children by design. The law aims to achive age appropriate design for games through setting mandatory technical requirements.

What is the full text of the Turkish E-Gaming Law? The full text of Turkish E-Gaming Law has been published at the Official Journal of 1 May 2026. The full text is available below.

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THE TURKISH INTERNET GAMING LAW

FULL TRANSLATION

The Law on Regulation of Broadcasts via Internet and Combating Crimes Committed by the Means of Such Publications as amended by Law no. 7578 (OJ 01.05.2026/33240)

Article 2 – (1)

ş) Game: Digital games distributed or updated via the Internet, playable online or offline in an electronic environment,

t) Game distributor: Natural or legal persons who, for the purpose of delivering digital games produced or published by content providers to end-users, manage relations with sales channels, coordinate the production and management of license keys, employ digital rights management systems, and provide financial or technical intermediation services in this process,

u) Game developer: Natural or legal persons who design digital games or game content, develop software for these, or manage the development process,

ü) Game platform: Natural or legal persons who provide software or technical infrastructure for the exhibition, sale, distribution, download, or playing of digital games and related additional content via the Internet; who enable or coordinate user access to games or content, license management, or user-to-user interaction,

Additional Article 5

(1) A game platform shall not offer games that have not been rated in accordance with the prescribed procedure. However, it may offer unrated games provided they are rated according to the highest age criterion. Without prejudice to the liability and obligations arising from its role as a content or hosting provider, the game platform is obliged to remove content that has not been rated in accordance with the prescribed procedure.

(2) A foreign-based gaming platform with daily access from Turkey exceeding one hundred thousand users is obliged to appoint a natural or legal person as a representative in Türkiye to ensure compliance with notices, notifications or requests sent by the Authority, the Association, judicial or administrative authorities, and to fulfil other obligations under this Law, and to notify the Authority of the details of this representative. The gaming platform shall display the representative’s contact details on its website in a manner that is easily visible and directly accessible.

(3) The gaming platform shall provide clear, comprehensible, and user-friendly parental control tools. The parental control shall contain the mechanisms relating to:

a) Control of account settings,

b) subjecting fee-based transactions, such as purchases, rentals and paid subscriptions, to parental consent or approval.

(4) The Authority may request from the gaming platform explanations directly related to the implementation of this Law, including the platform’s corporate structure, information systems and data processing mechanisms. The gaming platform is obliged to provide the information and documents requested by the Authority immediately and within a period to be determined by the Authority, not exceeding fifteen days.

(5) The procedures and principles concerning the implementation of this article, the obligations of gaming platforms, and the classification based on age criteria shall be determined by a regulation issued by the Authority.

(6) Where a gaming platform fails to fulfil the obligations set out in this Article or those contained in the regulation issued by the Authority, the Authority shall issue a notice to the platform. If the obligation in question is not fulfilled within thirty days of the notice, the President may impose an administrative fine of between one million and ten million Turkish lira on the gaming platform. If the obligation in question is not fulfilled within thirty days of the notification of the administrative fine, a further administrative fine of between ten million and thirty million Turkish lira may be imposed. The amount of the administrative fine shall be determined taking into account the nature and severity of the breach, its impact on users, or the damage caused.

(7) If the obligation specified in the notice is not fulfilled within thirty days of the notification of the second administrative fine, the President may apply to the criminal court of peace to have the internet traffic bandwidth of the gaming platform reduced by thirty per cent. If the obligation specified in the notice is not fulfilled within thirty days of the implementation of the judge’s decision accepting the application, the President may apply to the criminal court of peace to reduce the internet traffic bandwidth of the gaming platform by up to fifty per cent. In the decision issued following the second application, the judge may determine a lower rate, provided it is not less than thirty per cent, taking into account the nature of the service provided. The President may lodge an appeal against these decisions in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 5271. Decisions issued by the judge are sent to the Authority to be notified to access providers. The requirements of the decisions must be complied with by the access providers immediately upon notification and no later than four hours thereafter. If the obligation subject to the notification is fulfilled, one-quarter of the administrative fines imposed shall be collected, and the judge’s decisions shall automatically become void. The Authority shall notify the access providers to cease the intervention in internet traffic bandwidth.

Article 27 –

(1) This Law shall enter into force as follows:

a) Articles 22 and 23 six months after publication,

b) Other articles on the date of publication.