A paradox at the center of Reuters' investigation: Iran bans gambling as sin and crime, yet simultaneously uses money from illegal casinos to circumvent international sanctions. The scheme is based in a Dubai office that officially deals with cryptocurrency and unofficially launders billions of dollars.
Who profits from the forbidden
At the heart of the scheme is the unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange Shelbit, run by Iranian expatriate Siavash Keyvanpour. Its main client is a network of over 2,000 online casino websites, whose public faces are two Iranian influencers with connections to power circles. In 2023, an Iranian court found all three accomplices guilty of organizing an illegal gambling business – but this did not stop the flow of money.
The secret is that the gambling network has access to Iran's state electronic payment system, controlled by the Iranian central bank. This means a structure that the court found criminal continues to use infrastructure controlled by the state itself.
How money disappears from under sanctions
Casino revenues flow into Shelbit, where they are converted to cryptocurrency and distributed through international exchanges, including Binance – the world's largest. This is a standard technique: cryptocurrency erases the trail of fund origins so thoroughly that it is difficult to prove where the money came from at the end.
According to Reuters, the gambling network is just one of Shelbit's clients. Through the same exchange pass operations of Iran's central bank and other sanctioned structures. Additionally, cryptocurrency wallets that Israel links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to these reports, the IRGC took control of the country's largest gambling sites a few years ago precisely to use them as a channel to funnel funds abroad.
The total volume of Shelbit operations since May 2024 is at least $4 billion.
Sanctions, drones and business that continues
The most revealing moment of the investigation is the timeline. Cash flows to the exchange did not stop even when Iran attacked the UAE with a drone that hit less than a kilometer from Shelbit's Dubai office. Money continued to flow during the US and Israeli war against Iran.
On July 29, the US imposed new sanctions against Iran – for extorting money from commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz to finance the IRGC. The Shelbit scheme shows the other side of the same coin: while some financing channels are shut down, new ones emerge – this time disguised as forbidden entertainment business and a cryptocurrency exchange in a neighboring country.
The question is whether this publication will prompt the UAE to respond to the exchange's activities on its territory, or whether Dubai will continue to serve as a convenient hub for circumventing sanctions, as long as officially no one violates local laws.
