The government of Bangladesh is dramatically escalating its war on unregulated online gambling. The nation’s Telecommunications & ICT Minister, Faiz Ahmed Taiyeb, has issued a final, stark warning, stating that all websites engaging with betting or related unsafe advertising materials, even via simple hyperlinks, could be subject to immediate removal without further notice.
According to local reports, this aggressive new stance follows multiple recent warnings from authorities that have been largely ignored, as many new sites continue to profit from unregulated betting advertisements.
The minister’s declaration was made during a high-level discussion at the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s (BTRC) headquarters in Dhaka.
During the meeting, Taiyeb revealed that the government is now actively utilizing new web crawling technologies.
These tools are being deployed to identify and trace links between mobile financial services accounts and illegal gambling activities, striking at the industry’s payment infrastructure.
This technological offensive has already produced significant results. Taiyeb confirmed that over 1,330 illegal links have been identified and removed. The BTRC is also compiling lists of unregulated accounts, which are being evaluated on a weekly basis for further action.
However, Minister Taiyeb has now called for even stronger enforcement techniques. He is putting pressure on the country’s broadband service providers and mobile operators to take a more active role in helping to tackle the growing network of unregulated online gambling advertisements.
This latest news is a direct consequence of the nation’s government declaring a “zero-tolerance” online gambling policy last week.
This new, hardline approach was implemented under the wide-ranging powers of the new nationwide iGaming enforcement measures, which are part of the country’s Cyber Security Ordinance 2025.
Faiz Ahmed Taiyeb, Bangladesh Telecommunications & ICT Minister:
“Almost all media outlets are still actively participating in unsafe content and gambling advertisements, because they earn money from them. Multiple notices have already been issued. There will be no further public notice — we will simply close them. These sites must be shut down.”
