Turkey upholds ban on casinos

The Turkish Constitutional Court has upheld a law banning the country's casinos.

The law -- which comes into effect next month February 11th-- was passed by the previous government, led by the recently outlawed pro-Islamist Welfare Party.

Welfare opposed casinos on religious grounds and because it said they were a threat to family life.

In backing the move, the present government expressed concern about tax evasion and the laundering of profits from drugs.

There are more than seventy casinos in Turkey which employ some seventeen-thousand people.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service