Bangladesh’s government is preparing a new law to tighten controls on gambling, betting and online gambling, Home Affairs Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said on Sunday, according to state news agency BSS.
The proposed legislation would replace a colonial-era statute with updated provisions covering gambling, betting and online gambling. Salahuddin said the government hoped to place the draft law before parliament in the next parliamentary session.
The minister said the country’s existing gambling law dates back to 1867 and is outdated. He added that the government plans to repeal the old law and introduce a “modern and time-befitting” framework to address emerging crimes, including online gambling.
The planned overhaul comes amid growing concern over illegal online betting in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bank has directed all 13 mobile financial service providers to take urgent measures to stop transactions linked to online gambling, according to The Business Standard. The report cited a senior central bank official as saying that funds transferred out of the country through online gambling could total around Tk50 billion ($407 million).
Authorities have also taken action against mobile financial service accounts allegedly linked to online gambling and informal money transfers. The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit previously suspended 21,725 such accounts.
Separate research by Dismislab found that betting ads have also reached Bangladeshi users through mobile games, with nearly 1 in 11 ads in monitored gaming apps promoting betting or gambling.
