Bangladesh Gambling Prevention Act 2026: What AML Compliance Leaders Need to Know

Regulation Name: Gambling Prevention Act 2026
Date Of Publish: 01 Jul 2026
Region: Bangladesh
Agency: Government of Bangladesh

Bangladesh New Anti-Gambling Law 2026

Quick answer: On 1 July 2026, Bangladesh’s Parliament (Jatiya Sangsad) enacted Act No. 98 of 2026, repealing the colonial-era Public Gambling Act, 1867 and replacing it with a comprehensive law targeting gambling, online gambling, online betting, and related digital offences. The Act directly intersects with AML/CFT obligations by criminalising ghost SIMs, fake Mobile Financial Service (MFS) accounts, crypto-based gambling settlements, VPN/proxy circumvention, and gambling-linked money transfers — and it designates gambling-related offences as predicate offences under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012.

Key Takeaways for Compliance Officers

• Effective date: 1 July 2026 (Bengali calendar: 17 Ashar 1433), following presidential assent and gazette publication.
• Repeals and replaces the Public Gambling Act, 1867, which regulators and lawmakers deemed obsolete for digital-era risks such as online casinos, crypto gambling, and VPN-masked betting platforms.
• Predicate offence link: Serious gambling-related conduct — particularly offences tied to laundering gambling proceeds — is explicitly treated as a predicate offence under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, bringing it squarely into scope for reporting entities’ AML risk assessments.
• Digital identity crackdown: The Act criminalises the use of ghost SIMs, falsified biometric/NID data, and fraudulent MFS accounts to facilitate gambling — issues that mirror common mule-account and identity-fraud typologies AML teams already monitor.
• Financial-sector obligations: Banks, MFS providers, payment gateways, and digital wallet operators face new due-diligence, monitoring, and account-freezing expectations tied to suspected gambling transactions.
• Cross-border enforcement: The law provides for international cooperation, including engagement with Interpol, for cross-border gambling and asset-recovery cases.

Why This Law Matters Now

Bangladesh’s Constitution (Article 18(2)) directs the State to adopt effective measures to prevent gambling under the Gambling Prevention Act 2026. Lawmakers concluded that the 1867-era statute could not address the realities of the digital economy — including online betting apps, virtual casinos, sports betting platforms, crypto-denominated wagers, and fraud enabled by VPNs, fake social media accounts, and counterfeit MFS profiles. The Statement of Objects and Reasons attached to the act explicitly frames unregulated online betting, biometric fraud, and digital payment abuse as threats to social order, economic stability, public safety, and youth welfare—language that signals this is as much a financial-crime statute as a public-morals law.

For AML, counter-fraud, and financial-crime compliance teams, this reframes gambling risk in Bangladesh from a peripheral reputational issue into a defined legal and regulatory exposure, with direct implications for transaction monitoring, customer due diligence, and suspicious activity reporting.

What the Act Covers

1. Broad Definition of “Online Gambling Platform”

The law defines online/digital gambling platforms expansively — covering websites, apps, software, VPNs, proxies, and mirror sites used to offer or facilitate gambling. Named categories of betting include:

• Sports betting
• Live betting
• Exchange betting
• Casino betting
• Virtual betting
• Fantasy betting
• E-sports betting

2. Crypto and Digital Assets

The Act specifically references Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, tokens, and virtual coins, along with NFTs and other digital assets, as instruments that can be used in prohibited gambling activity — a direct signal that virtual-asset service providers (VASPs) and crypto-exposed institutions operating in or serving Bangladeshi customers should factor gambling-related typologies into their risk models.

3. Ghost SIMs, Fake Identities, and MFS Fraud

“Ghost SIM” is defined as a SIM registered using a false, stolen, or fraudulently obtained identity. The law criminalises the acquisition and use of ghost SIMs, falsified NID/biometric data, and fake MFS accounts to enable gambling — overlapping heavily with existing AML red flags around mule accounts, synthetic identities, and SIM-swap-enabled fraud.

4. Infrastructure and Access Providers

VPN, proxy, mirror site, hosting, domain, cloud infrastructure, and content-delivery-network (CDN) services used to provide access to gambling platforms fall within scope, with obligations extending to internet service providers to block access to identified gambling platforms, domains, and social media channels.

5. Advertising, Sponsorship, and Influencer Marketing

The Act prohibits promotion of gambling through advertising, sponsorship, affiliate marketing, and referral campaigns — including activity by celebrities and influencers — closing a common promotional channel used by unlicensed offshore operators to reach Bangladeshi users.

6. Financial Transactions Tied to Gambling

Transferring, receiving, or facilitating funds connected to gambling activity is prohibited, with provisions for freezing MFS accounts, digital wallets, and crypto wallets connected to suspected gambling proceeds — a power that will be directly relevant to banks and MFS operators responding to law-enforcement or regulatory requests.

7. Institutional and Technical Enforcement Mechanisms

The Act references the establishment of:

• An Inter-Agency Task Force for coordinated enforcement.
• An NID-SIM-MFS Linking System to strengthen identity verification across telecom and financial accounts, including biometric and facial-recognition-based risk verification.
• Technology-driven monitoring tools such as AI-based monitoring, deep packet inspection (DPI), risk scoring, and transaction monitoring systems for detecting gambling-related digital activity.

8. Penalties

The Act sets out a tiered penalty structure combining imprisonment and fines across offence categories — ranging from simple gambling participation to operating as a bookmaker, running offshore gambling sites, providing VPN/proxy access, and facilitating gambling-linked financial transfers — with enhanced penalties for repeat offenders. Because gazette scans of the exact prescribed terms and fine amounts can be difficult to render precisely, compliance teams should verify the specific quantum of penalties against the official Bangladesh Gazette (Act No. 98 of 2026, published 1 July 2026) before using figures in internal policy documents.

Practical Implications for AML Compliance Programs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Bangladesh’s new gambling law called? It is officially titled the law repealing the Public Gambling Act, 1867 and enacting new provisions on gambling, online gambling, and online betting — designated as Act No. 98 of 2026, passed by the Jatiya Sangsad and assented to by the President on 1 July 2026.

Does the new law replace the Public Gambling Act, 1867? Yes. The 1867 Act is repealed in full and replaced with updated provisions designed to address online and digital gambling, which the earlier law did not contemplate.

Is gambling-related activity a predicate offence for money laundering in Bangladesh? Yes, the Act links relevant offences to the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, meaning gambling-related proceeds and related conduct can trigger predicate offence treatment for AML purposes.

What entities are most affected from a compliance standpoint? Banks, mobile financial service (MFS) providers, payment gateways, digital wallet and crypto-asset platforms, telecom operators (SIM registration), internet service providers, and any business engaged in online advertising, sponsorship, or affiliate marketing with exposure to betting platforms.

Does the law address cryptocurrency-based gambling? Yes. The Act explicitly names cryptocurrencies (including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT), tokens, virtual coins, and NFTs as digital assets that can be used to facilitate prohibited gambling activity.

What should compliance teams do next? Obtain the official gazette text (Bangladesh Gazette, Extraordinary Issue, 1 July 2026) to confirm exact penalty provisions and effective-date sections, update AML risk typologies and predicate-offence registers, and monitor for implementing rules from the Inter-Agency Task Force and financial regulators.

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