Turkish Lotteries

The Turkish lottery, Milli Piyango, was established 5 July 1939.

At the end of 2013, Turkey began the process of trying to privatize the national lottery. The goal behind the privatization was to generate an immediate billion-dollar windfall for the government in return for surrendering total lottery revenue for a set period of time. In 2014, the Turkish consortium of Net Sans-Hitay paid the Turkish government USD 2.76 billion for a 10-year license to operate the lottery. The consortium is working with American lottery company Scientific Games to deliver the lottery products.

This was the second time Turkey has attempted to privatize the national lottery. In October 2008, the Turkish government announced that it would privatize the national lottery in 2009, but it never found a bidder to meet its price.