The High Court on Tuesday directed the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to immediately block all visible online gambling websites so that they cannot advertise on digital platforms, including social media, news portals, television channels and other online media.
The court also ordered the Bangladesh Bank to issue necessary directives upon all the mobile financial service providers of the country including bKash, Nagad and Rocket so that the gamblers cannot conduct any transaction using their payment gateways.
The High Court bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Mohammad Showkat Ali Chowdhury passed the order after hearing a petition.
Lawyer Kamal Hossain Meahzi appeared in the court hearing for the petitioners, while Deputy Attorney General Sheikh Saifuzzaman represented the state.
Lawyer Kamal Hossain said, "Gambling is banned in Bangladesh. But various online gambling advertisements including 1xbet, Melbet, Baji, Baji Sports, Betwinner, 10Cric, Bet365, BJ Baji are being aired on various news portals, TV channels, especially sports channels and social media.
As a result, especially college-university students are getting involved in gambling avoiding the all eyes including their parents. Different media have already published news regarding the issue."
The lawyer further said, "Although a writ in this regard is still pending in the High Court, online gambling advertisements are being aired on different TV channels, especially sports channels, social media, video streaming platforms, and other portals. And being lured by these advertisements, many people are silently engaging in online gambling. And the transactions of these gambling are being done through payment gateways. Incidents like money laundering are also taking place through it."
The lawyer said they earlier sent a legal notice to the respondents to stop gambling ads, however, the notice was unheeded. Finally they filed a supplementary petition with the pending writ petition addressing the issue.
Following a writ petition filed by two Supreme Court lawyers Miftaul Alam and Sumit Kumar Sarkar, the HC on December 19 last year issued a rule over the inaction of the respondents to stop such ads on the digital platforms.
The rule is now pending. In the meantime, the lawyers filed the supplementary petition seeking HC directives to block the online gambling websites.
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