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.