Bangladesh Bank orders mobile payment services to block online gambling transactions

Abi Bray

5 November 2025 at 5:53am UTC-5

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Bangladesh Bank has directed all mobile financial service providers to halt transactions associated with online gambling, in line with recent instructions from the Information and Communication Technology Division.

Bangladesh Bank issued letters to 13 mobile financial service operators directing them to strengthen oversight and implement technological safeguards to prevent illegal activities.

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As per the directive’s instructions, the operators must compile a list of suspicious accounts, form task forces, and enforce AI-driven systems to detect gambling-related transfers in real time.

The order also mandates the creation of a public reporting mechanism, including a web portal and helpline, to allow citizens to report gambling-related concerns.

Bangladesh Bank said it will hold a review meeting on November 6 with seven mobile financial service operators to assess their progress.

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The meeting will examine the effectiveness of current monitoring systems, the capacity of providers to enforce new controls, and the kind of institutional support needed to block illicit financial flows.

This comes a couple of weeks after authorities ordered the immediate shutdown of Bangladeshi portals found displaying betting advertisements or unsafe content.

Abi Bray brings strong researching skills to the forefront of all of her writing, whether it’s the newest slots, industry trends or the ever changing legislation across the U.S, Asia and Australia, she maintains a keen eye for detail and a passion for reporting.

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The Backstory

Why regulators moved now

Bangladesh’s directive to choke off gambling-linked transfers through mobile wallets did not arrive in a vacuum. It follows months of mounting legal pressure, policy signals and early enforcement steps aimed at curbing a surge in online betting. The country’s High Court has pressed ministries and regulators to act, civil society petitions have sought sweeping blocks on gambling gateways, and police have begun invoking a new cyber law to pursue alleged intermediaries. Together, those threads converged into a financial-sector response: telling mobile financial service operators to detect and stop illicit flows in real time and build public reporting channels.

The judiciary’s involvement has been pivotal. In one order, the High Court demanded that the government explain its progress on stopping online gambling advertising within 30 days and asked why a round-the-clock monitoring team should not be created. That ruling, which named senior officials and multiple agencies as respondents, underscored that all forms of gambling are criminal offenses in Bangladesh and elevated the issue from policy debate to compliance mandate. For context, see the court’s directive to file an affidavit on actions against promoters and advertisers in a ruling requiring a government report on online gambling.

Another bench went further, ordering a ban on online gambling ads and the creation of a seven-member committee, including ministry secretaries and the Inspector General of Police, to deliver findings within 90 days. The court also questioned whether officials’ inaction should be deemed illegal, sharpening the stakes for regulators and platform operators. The details of that order are laid out in the High Court’s mandate to ban gambling promotion across media.

Courts set the stage in Dhaka

The legal rulings did more than call for reports. They articulated a framework: reduce the visibility of gambling in mainstream and social media, tighten interagency coordination and craft an always-on monitoring posture. That architecture makes financial-channel controls the logical next step. Mobile money is ubiquitous in Bangladesh and is often the bridge between offshore betting platforms and local bettors. Once the courts demanded concrete action, regulators moved to the chokepoints they control: the payments and e-money rails.

The pressure has roots in public health and crime concerns. Petitions cited addiction risks and argued that digital advertising enables rapid onboarding to unlicensed sites. The court’s focus on whether official inaction could be unlawful turned a broad social worry into a matter of administrative accountability. In that frame, a central bank order to operators—to list suspicious accounts, deploy AI-driven screening and stand up helplines and web portals so citizens can report activity—aligns with the court’s call for proactive monitoring and coordinated enforcement.

The new financial measures also dovetail with a broader government content sweep. Authorities have recently moved to shut down local portals hosting betting promotions or unsafe material, a step that narrows the on-ramps that operators use to acquire customers. Advertising takedowns are only part of the solution; restricting payments seeks to make it harder for illicit platforms to function even when users find workarounds.

From warnings to enforcement

Bangladesh has shifted from policy signaling to tangible enforcement. The Criminal Investigation Department launched one of the first actions under the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025 Act, identifying more than 1,000 alleged agents tied to online gambling flows and forwarding names to the central bank for follow-up. That move links criminal investigations with financial supervision and telegraphs that payment intermediaries are under scrutiny. The agency’s posture and the penalties under the new ordinance are detailed in the national crackdown on illegal online gambling.

The sequencing matters. First came court orders targeting ads and demanding plans. Next, a cyber law-backed sweep mapped out local facilitator networks. Now, payment providers are being told to harden their systems, provide data and collaborate in reviews of what is and is not working. The approach mirrors other financial-crime campaigns in Bangladesh: combine intelligence from police with supervisory expectations for private-sector compliance, then iterate through review meetings to close gaps.

The central bank’s push for AI-driven detection and real-time interdiction raises operational stakes for mobile financial service operators. They will have to fine-tune models to distinguish illicit gambling from legitimate transactions, build escalation workflows and prepare for account freezes or reporting obligations that may affect customer experience. That is why the order also contemplates industry feedback and capacity assessments—regulators want to know whether operators can enforce at scale without disrupting lawful payments.

Regional echoes and contrasts

Bangladesh is not alone in treating payments as the lever to curb online gambling. The Philippines is moving in parallel, though with a narrower scope. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ordered e-wallet platforms to remove links and in-app features that connect users to gambling sites within 48 hours. Lawmakers pressed for immediate compliance, citing public harm and a tally of nearly 12,000 illegal online gambling sites. The Philippine debate shows how quickly consumer-access channels can be reconfigured when regulators target user journeys inside popular apps. The Senate hearing and the order are summarized in the BSP directive to unlink e-wallets from gambling sites.

Brazil presents a contrast. There, the Central Bank has told lawmakers it lacks legal authority to regulate sports betting companies directly, even as it tracks transaction volumes and cooperates with the Finance Ministry’s betting secretariat. Monthly deposits into betting platforms have reached an estimated 20 billion to 30 billion reais, highlighting the scale of flows that sit adjacent to but outside the central bank’s remit. That jurisdictional gap shows why some countries lean on payment-service oversight and others require new statutes to act. Brazil’s limitations are outlined in the testimony on the Central Bank’s lack of power over betting operators.

Taken together, the region’s experiences point to a playbook: cut promotional funnels, restrict embedded access in financial apps and, where possible, enforce through payment rails even when offshore platforms elude direct licensing control.

What to watch next

The next test in Bangladesh is operational. Regulators plan to review how seven mobile financial service operators are implementing the new controls, including whether monitoring systems are effective and what institutional support they need to block illicit flows. Expect scrutiny of false positives, dispute handling and the speed of interdictions. Law enforcement will likely feed cases from its agent list into those systems to test detection quality.

Another focal point is interagency coordination. The court-ordered committee on advertising and the cyber policing teams will have to align with the central bank on definitions, indicators of suspicious activity and data-sharing protocols. The court’s 30-day and 90-day timelines for reports and recommendations create a calendar that may drive iterative tightening of rules, especially if early controls push activity into new conduits.

Finally, watch for spillovers. As e-wallets and mobile money become more restrictive, bettors and operators may pivot to less regulated channels, including informal cash networks or crypto rails. That would challenge the current framework and could prompt additional measures. For now, Bangladesh has signaled that payment friction, public reporting tools and coordinated oversight are the core of its response—a strategy that mirrors neighbors’ efforts and seeks to make illegal gambling harder to fund, advertise and access.