Iran has made its biggest online gambling bust after taking down a network with links to the UK. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has broken up the country’s largest ever illegal online gambling ring. According to the Tehran Times, ministry officials said the network was UK owned and operated.

London-based mafia network”

While reports did not disclose any sums, they revealed the network “embezzled large quantities of money.” The national intelligence agency states some of the funds the “London-based mafia network” received from Iranian bettors would be deposited into their accounts as “gambling gains.”

The criminal network would, however, transfer a large amount of the bettors’ deposits to the UK.

While Iranian media sources did not disclose how much money was in play, the network was supposedly linked to 35,006 bank accounts, 1,200 payment gateways, and 54 online gambling sites.

In line with the bust, intelligence agents arrested five people running the “Nitro bet” network and the Pardakht.me payment gateway. Officials charged the five with economic sabotage, running online gambling sites, and receiving illegal payments.

In a statement released Saturday, the national intelligence agency attributed the bust to 14 months of “complicated intelligence research and surveillance.”

Officials accused the UK government of turning “a blind eye” to the network’s illegal operations in return for it paying high taxes. Iran claims the UK therefore did: “practically pave the way for the culprits’ criminal activities.”

State intelligence also claimed the UK-based network was working via multiple media channels to normalize gambling in the Islamic country, where it is both forbidden and illegal.