Inside the Iranian Online Gambling Network That Routed Billions Through Dubai

[YOSHIE]

So it's very hard to disrupt them and going to be cat-and-mouse game of US and the West and Iran.

I think in this case there is a connection between the US and Dubai governments, as far as I know the dismantling and exposure of Iran's illegal online gambling network coincided with aggressive actions taken by the US Treasury Department, They have a role in the Central Bank, which is the reason why Iran's illegal online gambling funds were revealed where they flowed.

It is true that the US government has no idea how to completely silence Iran, after the US failed to conquer the Hormuz prayer, now new news has emerged again, about Iran's illegal gambling funds via the Shelbit exchange located in the Deira district, Dubai.
This is a tense case and situation between the US and Iran, if the central bank freezes Shelbit exchange's illegal funds originating from the gambling industry, I'm sure the situation is more complicated as expected, Unless Iran has another crypto exchange that can accommodate funds from Iranian gambling, fortunately Dubai regulations only tell Shelbit to stop operating.

[Italian Panic]

It is a global problem affecting many other countries, and the fault lies with excessive regulation, in Iran, moreover, there is an Islamic regime, so the situation is even worse.
Sooner or later, governments will realise just how much money they are losing because of their principled stance against regulating gambling in their own countries. It is a phenomenon that cannot be curbed by banning it; indeed, history shows that prohibition always has the opposite effect. If you regulate it, the number of players drops because there is no longer the adrenaline rush of doing something outside the law.

[suzanne5223]

The latest story of money laundering and sanction evasion has emerged from the heart of a betting network. According to an exclusive investigative report by Reuters, a vast, illegal online gambling network operating in the Persian language managed to transfer at least $4 billion through an unlicensed Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange named Shelbit. The exchange served not only as a processing engine for betting sites, but also as a critical financial bridge moving funds between sanctioned Iranian economic entities and the global financial market.

https://irannewswire.org/iran-gambling-crypto-network-4-billion-dubai/

Perhaps this could be the biggest news on how Iran was able to stay afloat and even if they are being sanctions by the West, they continue to have funds along the way with billions into this unlicensed crypto exchange until  Dubai Financial Services Authority ordered Shelbit to immediately cease all operations.

But even if they've shutdown this, there could be other unlicensed crypto exchange that will be used by Iran to go around and circumvent the sanctions and earn billions thru illegal gambling sites.

So it's very hard to disrupt them and going to be cat-and-mouse game of US and the West and Iran.

Based on the $5.9 trillion in global wagering value, unregulated (illegal/offshore/unlicensed) online gambling made in 2025, while legal (regulated/onshore) online gambling generated an estimated $100–150+ billion.
I believe the $4 billion worth of crypto the Iranian government exchanged through the Shelbit platform is something they made from last year till now, but what I don't understand is how the fund was made through gambling since, by  Iranian law, all forms of gambling are not allowed.

Although the Shelbit is shut down now, there's always a DEX or privacy exchange the Iranian government can use to exchange their crypto.

[free-bit.co.in]

But my question is, why did UAE or Dubai FSA suddenly wake up?

They just wake up and shut down the company. but $4 billion was not traded in a single day, right?

Afaik, Dubai has been making itself safe haven for unregulated or loose crypto fund and capital around the world for years. Do you think Western world and FATF don't know how these financial hubs in Middle East are used for money laundering and sanctioned countries like Iran/Russia?
They know it all.

After the waters got muddy, Dubai showed the world that how strict they are by shutting down an exchange. Yet dozen of such unlicensed dealing are going on right under their noses!

[bhadz]

I think Iran has its reliable allies, even with the sanctions given to it. Its notable allies are China and Russia. Remember that the latter has been sanctioned and removed a lot of financial services from the US, but it's not that they're staying afloat, but they're able to deal with it. So, rotating with all of the money from these three countries is enough to keep Iran in place. Because AFAIK, Iran is continually supplying oil to China and there's no way to stop these two so there's still money aside from these money laundering that's possibly done in larger amounts.

[Fiatless]

But my question is, why did UAE or Dubai FSA suddenly wake up?

They just wake up and shut down the company. but $4 billion was not traded in a single day, right?

Afaik, Dubai has been making itself safe haven for unregulated or loose crypto fund and capital around the world for years. Do you think Western world and FATF don't know how these financial hubs in Middle East are used for money laundering and sanctioned countries like Iran/Russia?
They know it all.

After the waters got muddy, Dubai showed the world that how strict they are by shutting down an exchange. Yet dozen of such unlicensed dealing are going on right under their noses!

When money is moved from Western countries to other parts of the world, it is clean. But when it is done by another country which is not loyal to the US, the money is called dirty and the act called money laundering. What is the justification for the sanctions on Iran? Oh, because we have been brainwashed that they are the devil and the US is the angel of light.

I am happy Satoshi created Bitcoin. It is indeed serving as a tool against oppression. With cryptocurrencies, nobody can stop the movement of funds. How do you expect people to survive with these sanctions? See what is happening in Cuba and tell me it's right. Thank God for cryptocurrencies.

[tiCeR]

...

Politics aside, I think we can talk here about how money laundering can be carried out through gambling. Suppose you have a billion dollars of dirty money. You bet with big stakes on a gambling site, wagering tens of millions per day and eventually, even though your wins are much less than what you have won, you can withdraw those money and then it comes "washed", clean money, the source of which you can explain - you won it in casino.

I doubt that this would officially be accepted as a proof of the source of funds.

Politics aside (I agree ), if you lose 50% of it and you now have what you call $500 million "clean money" or "washed money", no serious bank in the world or no financial authority would let you get away with "I won it at an online casino" and I think online casinos is what we are talking about here. Withdrawing money from a casino does not make the casino your source of your funds. The questions won't stop there, you would have to provide deposit data for obvious reasons, and they would then ask where you got the money from that you were able to deposit.

I don't if that works out, but you could deposit much smaller increments and then try to hit big wins all the time. That would actually make it clean money for its most part. You would still have to prove your source of your funds, but in a worst case they could tax you afterwards, perhaps confiscate some for legal reasons I am not sure would be applicable here, but I don't think that once you got the money withdrawn from a casino, the financial authorities could take away your winnings.

This really leads me to the question and answers would be appreciated: if I deposit $10,000 (or any bigger, more suspicious amount) at an online casino, turn it into $1,000,000, withdrawal approved, financial authorities ask for source of funds and I say "won it at a casino". They then want to see proof of deposit and ask "where did you get the $10,000 from?" and I can't provide sufficient proof because of whatever reason. Could my winnings ever be confiscated by financial authorities? I assume that the law in most countries would be more or less similar here, or maybe not, but feel free to respond.

[coin-investor]

So it's very hard to disrupt them and going to be cat-and-mouse game of US and the West and Iran.

They have to find a way to sustain themselves if they want to continue challenging US power; they can easily go down with all these sanctions.
In the long run, the US will blame cryptocurrency because it helped their enemy keep afloat; now Iran is giving the world a strategy on how to sustain itself even with these sanctions using cryptocurrency and illegal gambling.
You have to think of methods, even if it's a dirty method, just to keep the funds coming and continue the fight.

[BRINIRHA]

Politics aside, I think we can talk here about how money laundering can be carried out through gambling. Suppose you have a billion dollars of dirty money. You bet with big stakes on a gambling site, wagering tens of millions per day and eventually, even though your wins are much less than what you have won, you can withdraw those money and then it comes "washed", clean money, the source of which you can explain - you won it in casino.

True, although we cannot release politics for this discussion because the purpose of money is already visible for what but from this we should realize one thing that when the situation is urgent then the regulations can be changed at will in accordance with the will that leads in a regime including in Iran now.

What I know is that gambling in Iran is illegal but by looking at what is happening now they are still enforcing illegal gambling on the surface to show that the image of the country still remains with strong cultural and religious concerns but the movement underground by regulating a lot of gambling sites and the profits are used for several things including politics it shows that indeed the image of the government now seems to be all the same.

[KiaKia]

Imagine you are there type that hate licensed crypto exchange because you don't want to pass KYC verification and they seize al their operation like it's been said in this news.

Same thing with unlicensed gambling platforms, I am not surprised because church can also move dirty money too, where did you get it you can say it's from church members Sunday service tithes and offerings.

Churches, casinos, crypto exchanges are one of the biggest dirty money washers ever, they wash and they move money easily, it will be impossible that Iran is only using this operation as their only option, there will be more out there.

[Merit.s]

What amaze me is how the heck this illegal exchange and betting platform get a huge fund like that to wash those dirty money? Afaik, this scheme requires a good fund stream from legit user in able to do that and I don’t know where the heck they can get a huge volume for unlicensed casino and exchange.

Or am I missing something here with how they operate to wash their money. Many casino struggles a lot to get customers especially unlicensed casino.

It's clear that the people who own these casino and exchange are rich people. Their rich friends can also use the casino to gamble likewise the exchange. And don't forget that these two businesses are what's trending currently, with crypto which means that they will always have legit customers.

Any money that's deposited into a casino becomes clean money when it's been withdrawn because casino is a business. Betwrong has already explained it already.

[crwth]

The way that digital exchanges work now, it's just so easy to do, so I think that it will be easy to deploy another one of these types of exchanges.

I'm just imagining now: why did Dubai only act now? Like, if it's billions, there are so many transactions already, and is there any corruption about it that's why it has been able to do that?

There should be some blockchain analytics involved in this type of thing. 

[DanWalker]

Perhaps this could be the biggest news on how Iran was able to stay afloat and even if they are being sanctions by the West, they continue to have funds along the way with billions into this unlicensed crypto exchange

So are you implying that Iran has made these betting networks one of their main ways to survive or fund under the sanctions? lol,,,

It is important for you to know that 4 billion dollars in gross volume does not mean 4 billion dollars in net profit or government revenue! Does it?
And most of the gambling site's money goes to payout, wash trading and middlemen's commission.

Isn't it a bit of an exaggeration to see it as Iran's mainstay of economic survival?

[yahoo62278]

The latest story of money laundering and sanction evasion has emerged from the heart of a betting network. According to an exclusive investigative report by Reuters, a vast, illegal online gambling network operating in the Persian language managed to transfer at least $4 billion through an unlicensed Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange named Shelbit. The exchange served not only as a processing engine for betting sites, but also as a critical financial bridge moving funds between sanctioned Iranian economic entities and the global financial market.

https://irannewswire.org/iran-gambling-crypto-network-4-billion-dubai/

Perhaps this could be the biggest news on how Iran was able to stay afloat and even if they are being sanctions by the West, they continue to have funds along the way with billions into this unlicensed crypto exchange until  Dubai Financial Services Authority ordered Shelbit to immediately cease all operations.

But even if they've shutdown this, there could be other unlicensed crypto exchange that will be used by Iran to go around and circumvent the sanctions and earn billions thru illegal gambling sites.

So it's very hard to disrupt them and going to be cat-and-mouse game of US and the West and Iran.

Politics aside, I think we can talk here about how money laundering can be carried out through gambling. Suppose you have a billion dollars of dirty money. You bet with big stakes on a gambling site, wagering tens of millions per day and eventually, even though your wins are much less than what you have won, you can withdraw those money and then it comes "washed", clean money, the source of which you can explain - you won it in casino.

Wouldn't you still need to prove where the money came from initially, assuming an investigation or trial happened? It sounds easy to fool the justice system that way but I guess it mainly depends on the laws in a country as to penalties and such.

[Chinesebaby]

Politics aside, I think we can talk here about how money laundering can be carried out through gambling. Suppose you have a billion dollars of dirty money. You bet with big stakes on a gambling site, wagering tens of millions per day and eventually, even though your wins are much less than what you have won, you can withdraw those money and then it comes "washed", clean money, the source of which you can explain - you won it in casino.

In a scenario like this, I doubt it will be easy to proof you won such money on a casino, since the amount deposited was higher than the amount withdrawn from it. Because if it was the other way round whereby you deposited $100,000 and won a million dollars or billion, that way it's easy to explain the money was won from a casino. Unless if a proper investigation is not done. Because it a proper investigation is to be done, they will definitely see the amount that was deposited and asked you to explain how you got such huge amount of money. However, in a corrupt country, all these can be maneuver over it with bribe.

[uchegod-21]

Politics aside, I think we can talk here about how money laundering can be carried out through gambling. Suppose you have a billion dollars of dirty money. You bet with big stakes on a gambling site, wagering tens of millions per day and eventually, even though your wins are much less than what you have won, you can withdraw those money and then it comes "washed", clean money, the source of which you can explain - you won it in casino.

What amaze me is how the heck this illegal exchange and betting platform get a huge fund like that to wash those dirty money? Afaik, this scheme requires a good fund stream from legit user in able to do that and I don’t know where the heck they can get a huge volume for unlicensed casino and exchange.

Or am I missing something here with how they operate to wash their money. Many casino struggles a lot to get customers especially unlicensed casino.

That is why it is illegal. I can bet that the money shown there does not come from the legit users, the casino knows how they generate their money and are using the casino as a camouflage. This is a case of money laundering, the casino is just like a tool used to confuse the government about whether the casino is legit or not. They are into other activities that generate that huge fund.

It's clear that the people who own these casino and exchange are rich people. Their rich friends can also use the casino to gamble likewise the exchange. And don't forget that these two businesses are what's trending currently, with crypto which means that they will always have legit customers.

I doubt that this is the reason for the huge amount of funds. It is alot.