At least 4,820 mobile financial service accounts and 1,331 web portals linked to gambling and betting have been shut down since May, said Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, the chief adviser鈥檚 special assistant for posts, telecommunications and information technology.
At a meeting titled 鈥楳easures to prevent online gambling,鈥� held at the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission headquarters in the capital鈥檚 Agargaon on Tuesday, he expressed concern over the growing online gambling and betting activities and the involvement of youths in such illegal activities.
He also alleged that several mainstream media outlets in Bangladesh were continuing to promote gambling-related advertisements on their online portals, despite a government directive to refrain from such promotions by October 19.
鈥業f such advertisements continue to be promoted, the authorities will shut down the respective media portals at any time without prior notice,鈥� he warned.
He also mentioned plans to create a central block list of accounts involved in gambling in collaboration with the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, mobile network operators and MFS providers to take necessary actions against those linked to such activities.
A BFIU representative at the meeting said that about 58,000 MFS accounts linked to gambling and other financial fraud were frozen between December 2022 and October 2025.
Representatives of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, Criminal Investigation Department of Bangladesh Police and National security intelligence expressed concern that anonymous SIM cards were being used in various types of financial fraud, including online gambling, as organised gangs were reportedly selling fake SIMs and using fingerprints of people, especially those live in rural areas, to activate those.
The speakers suggested allowing a maximum of five SIM cards registered under one national identity card.
Currently, the BTRC is working to cap the number of SIMs registered under one NID at 10.
BTRC chairman Emdadul Bari and ICT secretary Shish Haydar Chowdhury also attended the meeting.
Representatives of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre, MFS operators like Nagad and Bkash and mobile operators were also present.
