A gambling prevention bill has been placed in parliament to curb gambling and online betting, including sports and casino betting.

The bill has been introduced to repeal the 1867 “Public Gambling Act”.

The proposed law defines 24 categories of gambling related activities -- including online and remote gambling, betting, bookmaking, match fixing, and spot fixing -- and prescribes 14 types of punishments (fines, imprisonment, or both) depending on the nature of the offence.

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed tabled the bill today, which was later referred to the parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry for scrutiny, with instructions to submit a report within five working days.

According to the bill, any person directly or indirectly involved in gambling will face up to 2 years’ imprisonment, or a maximum fine of Tk 200,000, or both. Offences involving online or remote gambling will carry up to 5 years’ imprisonment, or a maximum fine of Tk one crore or both. Participation in online betting will be punishable by up to 7 years’ imprisonment, or a maximum fine of Tk five crore or both.

The statement of objectives of the bill notes that the existing Public Gambling Act, 1867 is more than 150 years old. Article 18(2) of the Constitution calls for effective state measures to prohibit gambling. At the 2018 Deputy Commissioners’ Conference, proposals were made to modernise the law and increase penalties to make enforcement more effective.

The minister explained that the current law is inadequate to address modern forms of gambling such as online betting, sports betting, virtual casinos, cryptocurrency based gambling, fake SIM use, and digital financial fraud.

He warned that online betting platforms, VPNs, social media, fake mobile financial service accounts, biometric fraud, and digital payment systems are being used for gambling, money laundering, and fraud that are posing serious threats to Bangladesh’s social order, economic stability, public safety, and youth.

He stressed that with the technological expansion of gambling, a comprehensive and updated law is necessary to maintain public order, reduce crime, prevent financial, social, and psychological harm, and safeguard the nation’s moral and economic balance.

The bill defines gambling, gambling venues, gambling materials, digital assets, digital gambling platforms, digital wallets, totalisators, online and remote gambling, betting, bookmaking, match fixing, and spot fixing -- a total of 24 categories -- with 14 types of punishments prescribed according to the offence.

The bill defined gambling as participating in housy, bingo, lottery, bullet, dice, poker, card games or similar games for money or anything of value; investing or collecting money, property or any other valuable thing for the purpose of gambling.

The bill also defines gambling place as any house, room, club, office, call center, cyber cafe, vehicle, vessel, aircraft, server room, data centre, digital platform, website, mobile app, social media group or channel or any other real or virtual place used for gambling.

Gambling equipment means table games, cards, coins, dice, totalisers, computers, mobile devices, servers, software, websites, databases, digital wallets, databases, electronic records, crypto wallets, call center equipment or any other equipment, records or materials used in gambling, online gambling, betting or the conduct of online betting.