Online betting remained easy to find in Bangladesh even after the Gambling Prevention Act, 2026 took effect. The Daily Star found betting promotions operating openly on Facebook and Instagram, and Meta’s Ad Library showed at least 210 ads promoting betting services within a week of the law coming into force.
The newspaper said the World Cup gave the trade a fresh boost on social media. It found dozens of Facebook groups and profiles promoting bets around World Cup matches, including one group with more than 100,000 followers and another with more than 124,000. Many of the pages had been created or renamed shortly before the tournament, and the outlet withheld their names.
A General Economics Division report released in January estimated the online gambling market at Tk 830 crore, or about $62 million to $68 million, and said it was growing 4.7% to 6.1% a year. It said more than 5 million people were already affected and warned that the number could exceed 20 million by 2027 without proper intervention.
Parliament passed the Gambling Prevention Act on 30 June. The law covers online gambling, betting, match-fixing, digital wallets and other technology-based gambling activities, criminalises promotion and advertisement, and defines gambling venues to include social media groups or channels. It replaced the colonial-era Public Gambling Act of 1867, which lawmakers said was not fit for technology-driven offences.
The penalties are severe. Participation in online betting carries up to seven years in prison and a Tk 5 crore fine, while involvement in online or remote gambling can bring up to five years and Tk 1 crore. Direct or indirect involvement in gambling is punishable by up to two years and Tk 200,000.
Yet The Daily Star said it found betting websites and promotions operating openly on social media despite the new law. It placed bets on 12 sites and found most used proxy links that displayed agent lists and contact numbers. Anyone with a mobile number could open an account, and betting could begin with a deposit of Tk 100.
Deposits and withdrawals were handled through agents rather than by the sites themselves. Agents created accounts for users and told them to send money to mobile financial service numbers listed on the sites, including bKash, Nagad and Rocket. Withdrawals were typically completed in three to five minutes, and customer support was available through Telegram and WhatsApp.
One agent told the paper the platform was run from outside Bangladesh and relied on more than 1,000 agents active almost around the clock. The same agent later offered incentives for recruiting new users, including a share of commission and a cash reward for snacks, and said agents earned commission on each recruit, a share of deposits and a monthly salary.
Police say they are already responding. Mohammad Tariqul Islam, deputy commissioner of the Detective Branch’s Cyber and Special Crime (South) Division, said online gambling rises during big events like the World Cup and that officers regularly conduct drives, arrest members of the groups involved and file cases. He said most gambling has now shifted online and most related cases are being filed under the new law.
Bangladesh Bank has also moved against the industry. The Business Standard reported that it ordered all 13 mobile financial service providers to take urgent steps to stop online gambling transactions, after an ICT Division directive, and warned that MFS platforms were being used to launder money abroad through illegal gambling. The central bank told providers to list suspicious accounts and set up a task force, an automated monitoring system with AI, a public reporting portal and a helpline.
The same report said BTRC had already blocked gambling websites in the country, but gambling continued through VPNs. It also said no agency has precise information on how much money is being transferred out of the country through online gambling, though a senior Bangladesh Bank official estimated the figure could be around Tk 5,000 crore.
bKash said it uses advanced technology and trained professionals to prevent online gambling and reports suspicious activity to the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit. Nagad said it does not allow customers to use its services for unethical transactions, including online betting, and reports suspicious or unusual activity to the relevant authorities.
