Turkish police raid wedding hall casino in Manisa, seize gambling gear

Police in Turkey’s Manisa province raided a wedding‑hall‑licensed business in the Yunusemre district on 1 August 2026 after discovering it was operating as an illegal casino. Officers found 55 individuals playing tombola and uncovered a concealed room behind a wall‑panel that housed large quantities of gambling equipment, including 6,973 small tombola tokens, 782 tombola sheets, 270 balls, 182 large tokens, 49 write‑off sheets, 16 decks of cards, an electronic tombola machine and a video‑recording device.

All 55 participants were fined a total of 638,220 Turkish lira. Ten people identified as organizers and facilitators of the gambling operation were charged with providing a venue for illegal gambling and violating the 1072 law. The operation was coordinated by the Manisa Public Prosecutor’s Office and carried out by the provincial police’s Public Order Department.