Bangladesh police arrest seven over alleged online gambling payment network
An investigation examined how illegal gambling platforms processed funds through local financial accounts.
Bangladesh.- Police have arrested seven people accused of running a payment network that allegedly processed transactions for illegal online gambling platforms. The arrests followed an investigation by the Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) into gambling websites and mobile applications suspected of facilitating illegal gambling in the country.
Investigators from the DB Cyber and Special Crime (South) Division say they found accounts on bKash and Nagad, Bangladesh’s mobile financial services, being used by agents, merchants and individuals to process gambling-related payments. Police said the financial trails led to an organised group that allegedly supplied active mobile financial service wallets to gambling operators in Bangladesh and overseas.
Officers raided a location in Jashore Kotwali at around 1am on Monday and arrested six suspects. Another person, allegedly the mastermind, was arrested in Kalkini in Madaripur at about 4am.
The operation resulted in the seizure of 484 SIM cards connected to mobile financial service accounts, 46 smartphones, eight laptops, one feature phone, 27 bank cards, three ledgers and two vehicles. The suspects face charges under Bangladesh’s Gambling Prevention Act. If found guilty, they could face up to five years in prison, a fine of up to Tk 10m (US$83,000), or both.
