Inside the Iranian Online Gambling Network That Routed Billions Through Dubai

[AmoreJaz]

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.

It is important to know that gambling is affecting a lot of life and property is devoted into gambling which makes it more dangerous to whoever is entangled with it. If Iran stops all forms of gambling or restricts it to a certain level to control it effects on it citizen it good and saves the economy better. More of the fundes are from people that smuggle government  or private funds mearnt for special purpose.
If the government wants to work investing in gambling should not be the the target of any government.

They should accept the fact that gambling is innate to humans and they will always play no matter what. Regulation will also give income to the government. So why not regulate it instead of total ban. Total banning of this activity will give black market to rise and the income will not go to their government. This is why it is being coursed thru other neighboring countries that will accept their gambling money.

[STT]

4 billion is not that huge of an amount to make any difference in a country,

4000 million is enough jam to spread around, clearly not for an entire population but I doubt many have any idea of such revenue passing through their communities hands.  Much like every dictatorship it works just fine for the elite and terrible for the majority who are unconnected to power or money.  Iran continues by sharing just enough for a few that they will willingly supress and use violence on the rest of the population, 4bn pays the bills just fine in such a system of bias.

[stompix]

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

Maybe because Iran is bombing them and their people?
I don't know, but I guess maybe that would be a motiv strong enough motive!

4 billion is not that huge of an amount to make any difference in a country,

4000 million is enough jam to spread around, clearly not for an entire population but I doubt many have any idea of such revenue passing through their communities hands. 

If anyone thinks even a penny of that will go to the population, he needs to change his meds.
All that money is for their terrorist organization, the IRCG.
All will be spent on their own finances and their terrorist cells.

Here is the daughter of their former chief at his funeral with what was then the brand new Iphone 13 Max worth 2 years of median wage, while shouting death to America!

[Alphakilo]

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.

It is important to know that gambling is affecting a lot of life and property is devoted into gambling which makes it more dangerous to whoever is entangled with it. If Iran stops all forms of gambling or restricts it to a certain level to control it effects on it citizen it good and saves the economy better. More of the fundes are from people that smuggle government  or private funds mearnt for special purpose.
If the government wants to work investing in gambling should not be the the target of any government.

They should accept the fact that gambling is innate to humans and they will always play no matter what. Regulation will also give income to the government. So why not regulate it instead of total ban. Total banning of this activity will give black market to rise and the income will not go to their government. This is why it is being coursed thru other neighboring countries that will accept their gambling money.

Regulations would have done a better job to make them more open but with an outright ban, am sure such illegal gambling operations would continue under a different name and shell entity and this might take awhile to detect or ban altogether.
I don't know think it's just about gambling or illegal gambling sites though, but about having reserve funds to fund their wars and jihad operations if so without western influence interference.

[$crypto$]

Binance was also reportedly involved in receiving $676 million in funds from Shelbit and that flow has been since May 2024 --- some other news Binance denies this because there is no concrete evidence that they received illegal funds.

Has it ever been revealed that Iran has hundreds of millions of dollars of stablecoins that are finally frozen, now the flow of online gambling funds? No wonder Iran has always had a way behind it to survive.

[Hispo]

Oh the Irony... Gambling and betting are essentially banned in Iran while at the same time they use Cryptocurrencies and casinos in order to avoid sanctions established by the United States and the European Union.
While the average person in Iran would be severely punished my authorities if they were found gambling, behind the knowledge of population the political elite of Iran use gambling and crypto to keep their country running...
If they were not so worried about religion and they were more pragmatic on the way to govern their country, they would allow people to gamble and collect taxes to keep their struggling economy.

So much hypocrisy from the Iranian regime.

[Darker45]

Iran has to be creative and find ways. The country has already an estimated more than a hundred billion USD that's frozen across different countries because of the sanctions. I'm sure the use of online gambling platforms and crypto exchanges are just two of the many ways to launder Iranian money. Especially in these times of war, every dollar counts.

It would always be a cat and mouse game. I'm sure Shelbit is just one among many, which might even include the most popular sites.

[Dave1]

So much hypocrisy from the Iranian regime.

And probably this is the reason why we don't have the peace that we are hoping. As the US says that they will have a peace pact but then again, will attack the next day. In any case, yes, they will have to find a way to get around with the sanctions. Very easy for them to used illegal gambling sites as their main source. And it's also interesting as who has been catch by this illegal sites?

So in a sense, if we do play on those sites and obviously losing money then we donate it to the case of Iran. And it might not be only in the Middle East players as I believed that don't gamble that much because of their religion. So it could still be some European and US or Australia and Asian countries that fuel their war at some extend because we might be falling for that illegal gambling sites and play it at some point.

[fullfitlarry]

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.

Yes, but here we can't take politics aside as this is Iran we are talking here. They've done everything thru illegal gambling sites as reported. For sure they are not the only one guilty of using a unlicensed crypto exchange to laundered and clean the money.

But with their war with the West, it really make sense for them to look for other means to raise money and this is thru illegal gambling sites. And with them being exposed, they could reinvent themselves. But the question is what lessons do gamblers learn here? Are they willing or unwillingly play on illegal gambling sites knowing that they are the one making money for Iran to continue to have this war?

[iv4n]

Yes, but here we can't take politics aside as this is Iran we are talking here. They've done everything thru illegal gambling sites as reported. For sure they are not the only one guilty of using a unlicensed crypto exchange to laundered and clean the money.

But with their war with the West, it really make sense for them to look for other means to raise money and this is thru illegal gambling sites. And with them being exposed, they could reinvent themselves. But the question is what lessons do gamblers learn here?

Players choose a casino based on games, bonuses, privacy, etc... not because they want to support some country or even worse, some political agenda. I guess we are all careful, but do you think we really know who is behind some casino? The world is connected... with financial heavens around it's easy to mask the true owners of any company.

Are they willing or unwillingly play on illegal gambling sites knowing that they are the one making money for Iran to continue to have this war?

This question is soooo wrong, in so many ways... and has nothing to do with gambling, and us ordinary players.

We can just repeat what we learned a long time ago here on the forum. The real lesson for players is to avoid shady operators/business/services!!! And not to turn gambling into a geopolitical debate...

[Natalim]

The real lesson for players is to avoid shady operators/business/services!!! And not to turn gambling into a geopolitical debate...

Exactly, we should leave the political side out of it for now.

When we gamble, our concern is whether the casino is safe, licensed, and fair to its players. We don’t need to keep arguing about what the people behind it will do with the money they earn. That’s already their responsibility.

Once we mix gambling with politics, the discussion becomes more complicated and moves away from the real topic. Gambling is personal entertainment, so I think we should judge the casino based on how it treats its players. The political issues and corrupt officials are a separate discussion.

[Hispo]

So much hypocrisy from the Iranian regime.

And probably this is the reason why we don't have the peace that we are hoping. As the US says that they will have a peace pact but then again, will attack the next day. In any case, yes, they will have to find a way to get around with the sanctions. Very easy for them to used illegal gambling sites as their main source. And it's also interesting as who has been catch by this illegal sites?

So in a sense, if we do play on those sites and obviously losing money then we donate it to the case of Iran. And it might not be only in the Middle East players as I believed that don't gamble that much because of their religion. So it could still be some European and US or Australia and Asian countries that fuel their war at some extend because we might be falling for that illegal gambling sites and play it at some point.

If I had to guess on which region of the world contributes the most to financing those illegal casinos and bookies (which may be economically tied to Iran) I would say the middle east, Asia and south America re the main contributors to what currently happens.
Th United States and Europe already have well regulated and attractive platforms which serve as alternative for their citizens.

I have talked to Muslins here in the forum who also happen to be gamblers, and some of them are very good at defending their person position on it.

In the end of the day, religion teaches us what a sin is and what it is not, and the reasons why it is so easy to sin while it is so difficult to stay in the right path.

[M47AK16]

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, they are tricking their own gamblers and all other crypto gamblers worldwide to make billions to continue the war against the west? Does this mean, gambling is the main source for Iran? We cannot be sure. But, what we need to takeaway from here is, whatever odds we would be getting from unknown and new gambling houses, we must stick within our favourite casinos or otherwise get trapped by government runs illegal gambling houses. Governments supported illegal things are too dangerous as you may fail 99% of times to spot out.

China is doing that for decades, they support goods to be manufactured same as famous brands and to be supplied worldwide cheaply. So, I am not surprised to see that Iran is making use of illegal gambling casinos to generate funds for whatever their needs (this doesn't mean that I support them anyhow on running illegal casinos).

Moreover, not just Iran, many countries and billionaires keep on running illegal gambling houses, but whet we need to do is, just sticking on basic practices while thinking about trying a new casino.

[Fortify]

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.

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.

This is merely one cog in their shadow network that allows them to earn some "dark" money but is not their exclusive way of making money. They'll likely having many thousands of different simultaneous operations going on that are trying to earn cash through every method online. Schemes that grow this big eventually fall on to some regulators radar and get discovered, then dismantled, but you can be sure that others will spring up in place. It's more an issue of what Dubai is allowing to happen and poorly regulating rather than how Iran is circumventing their sanctions, they have to be careful because too many instances like this will eventually get them into problems if they allow it to continue - they are not immune.

[Sandra_hakeem]

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.

You have a point, but it's worth noting that last time I checked, most AML tools were identifying gambling-related funds ^{[even the licensed ones]} as either a dangerous or a suspicious source of funds and a lot of platforms have started using such tools to flag such funds or transactions automatically ^{[sooner or later, they have to look for another route]}.

I was about to ask how active those AML tools are, but you just confirmed that. Although we still have other ways they can wash those dirty money, it's getting limited every single day. Come to think of it, how many of those funds can be converted through that process? If I stake $1 million on each ticket, what are the chances that I can make, out of a billion, at least 500 million clean money back to myself? It's lean.

This is one of the reasons why the regulatory commissions should make a stringent rule against those illegal casinos, because that's where they run to after all.

[Franklyn-wood]

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.

This are One of the reason today a lot licensed casinos  have a strict AML and KYC checks, things that are often flagged for investigation are unusual betting pattern, massive withdrawals and also lage deposit. Gambling is mostly being abused through money laundering, and also to know it not simple as that of playing little and cashing out, all this tactics regulators and casinos are so much aware of it, that is why any suspicious transactions they do monitor the transactions closely.

It is important to know that all the casino are the same and has no difference like some thinks it is.
All casino have same things only there way of operation that may be different and are sometimes feel attractive to the eyes because of the way it is presented to client. Changing the casino site because the name is different is not enough to think that there offer different service from what others are offering.
I don't think that moving from one casino to the other is a sign of gambling addiction which may later become uncontrollable and become a lifestyle.

[Odohu]

There is no clear explanation of how this system operate because you are using exchange and illegal gambling site interchangeably. Are you saying that they operate as a cryptocurrency exchange or as a casino? Are you saying that they are answering another name but behind the scene cleaning money for the Iranian regime? I know that Iran would have found ways of evading the western sanctions but I never believe that gambling platforms, that require wagering of deposits, will  be the option.

[henmark]

There is no clear explanation of how this system operate because you are using exchange and illegal gambling site interchangeably. Are you saying that they operate as a cryptocurrency exchange or as a casino? Are you saying that they are answering another name but behind the scene cleaning money for the Iranian regime? I know that Iran would have found ways of evading the western sanctions but I never believe that gambling platforms, that require wagering of deposits, will  be the option.

As far as I understand, there are illegal casino platforms where either legal or illegal funds are deposited, used for gambling, and then those funds are withdrawn to an unlicensed exchange platform which then the exchange transfers those funds to the regime which are basically operating those casinos. It is like sitting somewhere in the world, running a bunch of casinos to launder money into your country using an exchange as a way to hide the traces and stuff because exchanges are not suspected for their high-volume transactions because they have to handle a lot of funds in general if they have a lot of customers.

This is what I could understand about this case so far, I could be wrong about some things, but I think it is mostly something like that. Also, I believe that even if the funds that are being deposited and used in a casino aren't illegal or dirty, a bunch of casinos can still manage to make good money if they are promoted and spread around in a country, because we know how gambling addiction is increasing all around the world, and in a country where gambling is already legal or allowed, such platforms can spread very fast, one person gets to it, they start referring other people, and of course, social media platforms can help any platform spread around very fast these days.

[AVE5]

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.

Definitely if the Iranian only have to successfully execute their transactions through unauthorized sites like the crypto casino's and the US or the West have to intercept them on the go, it'll be difficult to entirely deprive the Iranian government from proceeding with the related transactions because there're too many unlicensed crypto casino's that they can always divert to if they're unable to continue or process transactions from the available site.
But the risk in the other hand is that as much as they're being apprehended and so on they gets their fund's seized, so on it'll cause the Iranian loses and I trust that'll also affect their bank rolls even as great government except they want to print more money which as a repercussion could affect their economy system.

[Hispo]

There is no clear explanation of how this system operate because you are using exchange and illegal gambling site interchangeably. Are you saying that they operate as a cryptocurrency exchange or as a casino? Are you saying that they are answering another name but behind the scene cleaning money for the Iranian regime? I know that Iran would have found ways of evading the western sanctions but I never believe that gambling platforms, that require wagering of deposits, will  be the option.

Basically, it is alledged the Iranian Regime actually runs both exchanges and gambling services aiming to gamblers from outside of their country (since gambling is completely banned in Iran), they stockpile all their profits and then they transfer them towards Dubai (using their party exchanges and liquidity providers), by doing so they completely bypass USA and EU sanctions, having full control over their funds and get other commodities and even FIAT in exchange for the money they have managed to send to Dubai.

Iran, Russia and North Korea have learnt to use Bitcoin and other assets to circumvent sanctions.