Bangladesh Government Comparing Gaming with Gambling and Cryptocurrency

[Fatemablabla]

Bangladesh Bank just blocked credit, debit and prepaid card purchase / transaction on various video game websites like Steam, Origin, Blizzard and many other third party video games website. According to them, this order came from Bangladesh Bank itself because they think these sites are gambling / cryptocurrency websites LOOOOL. What kind of fucktards are running this country who can't distinguish video game websites from gambling websites ??

Those of us who have credit, debit, prepaid cards originated in Bangladesh, we're basically fucked. Today I tried to buy a game from steam and saw my card isn't working.

#Digital_Bangladesh

This is the mail I got from my bank today.

[hugeblack]

Those of us who have credit, debit, prepaid cards originated in Bangladesh, we're basically fucked. Today I tried to buy a game from steam and saw my card isn't working.

Many countries are taking more stringent restrictions to keep a large part of the money inside the country and from being disbursed to foreign bank accounts, so they ban some global services.
Do these applications have license to work in Bangladesh or headquarters? If they had a headquarters I don't think they would be banned.
Generally, the conditions that were set are incorrect and may be misunderstood. They do not have a clear definition of crypto currencies or foreign stocks. I would have expected a list of prohibited services to be included.

Contact them, as it may have been stopped by mistake.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

What kind of fucktards are running this country who can't distinguish video game websites from gambling websites ??

Maybe it's because many video games these days have microtransactions built into them, which a lot of people (including gamers) think is akin to gambling.  If that isn't the reason, I sure as hell can't think of one. 

Those of us who have credit, debit, prepaid cards originated in Bangladesh, we're basically fucked. Today I tried to buy a game from steam and saw my card isn't working.

That might be your primary complaint, but based on that statement, buying crypto is prohibited as well.  That's not a good thing either. 

I'm not familiar with how banking works in Bangladesh.  Is Bangladesh Bank the ruling body with respect to banks, or is it just one bank among many in Bangladesh?  In the US, if my bank banned me from using my debit card to buy crypto/video games/whatever, I could just ditch them and open a bank account at another bank that didn't have those restrictions--unless it was a law and not a bank policy.  So could you clarify what the situation is in your country, OP?

[Pffrt]

It ia because of the first one- payments related to casinos/gambling, which was frowned upon long ago. All the gambling sites were banned by Mostofa Zabbar, nettelar, skrill was also banned for this reason. This has nothing to do with crypto I think although I believe that all that guys including Mostofa Zabbar are fucking retards. They don't have common sense that they can only create a false sense of banning them while it's impossible to stop gambling, it's impossible to stop crypto transactions.

[Raflesia]

Already Bangladesh is one amongst the country that is against cryptocurrency, and has banned the usage of bitcoin within the country. Right now Bangladesh have taken the next step against the cryptocurrency usage, and this time it has been done without proper planning. As there is a common opinion among the people as cryptocurrency is for gambling and illegal activities. The government might have understood in such a way and imposed such a decision of comparing gaming and gambling.

So in essence the game of gambling is what made the Bangladdesh government oppose the existence of cryptocurrency in its country, well I think there are still some countries that prohibit cryptocurrency for fear of being misused or illegal acts that are increasingly widespread in their own country and now impact on card payments other games so that it creates a lot of polemic about this planning so fast.

[harizen]

Is the regulation also applies to other banks there? (as mentioned "In compliance with Bangladesh Banks").

If yes, then maybe there's another way to top-up credits at your preferred game developer. Surely, it wasn't limited to only bank payment. Try to check the payment methods.

If no, then try transferring to another bank. Processing debit and cards only take a few days in most of the cases. If you are worried that it won't be accepted too, try to borrow a card from your friends or related ones and check if payment will be successful. Of course, you have to pay them after lol.

What kind of fucktards are running this country who can't distinguish video game websites from gambling websites ??

It's not that they don't know the difference between a game website and gambling websites.

The regulatory is clear, "regarding to foreign currency transactions". Those video game developers you have mentioned are operating outside your country.

[Ryker1]

Well, they already banned cryptocurrency a long time ago and now any related to cryptocurrency, gambling, and video games are now banned too.
I understand that this country very strict on gambling since gambling is prohibited or against their religion. But I don't see video games purchasing is a form of gambling here, --sounds like they manipulated too much their citizen their and I hope this perhaps has a good output to them. Luckily I do not belong to that country.
I think not only gambling, video games, or any transaction website. It is also included pornography websites they banned.
^{[ https://www.dw.com/en/bangladesh-anti-porn-war-bans-blogs-and-google-books/a-47684058 ]}

[Fatemablabla]

Contact them, as it may have been stopped by mistake.

I contacted them, they said it was banned from the Central bank. Reasons are given on the main topic.

Maybe it's because many video games these days have microtransactions built into them, which a lot of people (including gamers) think is akin to gambling.  If that isn't the reason, I sure as hell can't think of one.

 
It is a good point they might overthinking this and comparing this with gambling that's why took these steps.

That might be your primary complaint, but based on that statement, buying crypto is prohibited as well.  That's not a good thing either.  

I'm not familiar with how banking works in Bangladesh.  Is Bangladesh Bank the ruling body with respect to banks, or is it just one bank among many in Bangladesh?  In the US, if my bank banned me from using my debit card to buy crypto/video games/whatever, I could just ditch them and open a bank account at another bank that didn't have those restrictions--unless it was a law and not a bank policy.  So could you clarify what the situation is in your country, OP?

Actually in our country, while we created our account and card we agreed to the terms that we won't do any illegal things like gambling or buying crypto with that money. But purchasing games and other legal digital things was not part of those conditions. Suddenly they changed their minds and took these steps about this. As it is an order from the central bank I can't buy games with the cards of any other bank.

Most of the ministers in our higher authorities are illiterate that's why we are still a third-generation country and the government is doing these funny things on the suggestions of those illiterate people.

[Darker45]

This is how regulation looks like if the regulators are not well-informed or, worse, misinformed of certain aspects of that which they are regulating. This is a perfect example of Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) in the hard world.

The Bangladesh Bank must have been fed wrong information specifically about gaming sites such as Steam and Blizzard for coming up with such a ridiculous policy.

Well, they must have learned lessons from the infamous $81 million Bangladesh Bank cyber heist and are now implementing harsh policies.

[jossiel]

They probably are recognizing that there are e-sports bookies and that's why they've considered your payment related to gambling. If there's an avid gamer of Steam, kindly CMIIW.

That there are casinos where you can use your Steam Wallet Code to fund your betting account. And that could be the reason why they are connecting your transaction to it. Why suddenly Bangladesh is like that? they compare crypto as buying lottery tickets and gambling. They should amend their law and be open with crypto investing.

You still have an option, buy gift cards of steam or transact P2P on the forum through an escrow for SWC with crypto.

[Twinkledoe]

This is how regulation looks like if the regulators are not well-informed or, worse, misinformed of certain aspects of that which they are regulating. This is a perfect example of Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) in the hard world.

The Bangladesh Bank must have been fed wrong information specifically about gaming sites such as Steam and Blizzard for coming up with such a ridiculous policy.

Well, they must have learned lessons from the infamous $81 million Bangladesh Bank cyber heist and are now implementing harsh policies.

I think that case has influence on having strict regulations with online gaming also. That multi-million dollar cyber heist is still one for the history books. Now, they are very careful to the point that they are not reasonable. I think if someone will brought that up, they will review that regulation again.

[Eternad]

It's too strict that even forex is not allowed and foreign stocks is not allowed. This can also the reason they didn't want to accept any foreign apps or games that requires payment and card details for security as they experience a cyber heist last 2016 a huge lost that's their implementation and banning transactions were too insane. I guess any foreign transactions that includes card and bank details were totally ban after that heist. This should be a lesson to tighten their security against hackers and to improve their service, but the sad thing is that their people will also need to adjus or do other option like this.

You still have an option, buy gift cards of steam or transact P2P on the forum through an escrow for SWC with crypto.

[Little Mouse]

Is the regulation also applies to other banks there? (as mentioned "In compliance with Bangladesh Banks").

Bangladesh Bank is the central Bank of Bangladesh. So, if Bangladesh Bank ask to follow something, they mist comply with that and as a result, no bank will now support gaming or gambling tx anymore. It has been a while authority is having worst time regulating this. Even they claim that with our regular local money transfer method Bkash is helping money laundering but they did not stop Bkash so far.

Well, they must have learned lessons from the infamous $81 million Bangladesh Bank cyber heist and are now implementing harsh policies.

None would work as long as we are corrupted. There are a lot of option to top up this services, there are options to use crypto, there are options to gamble. I'm talking about this because we are corrupted and so does all of our authority is which is why $81 million was hacked. I believe some of our local authentic people were responsible for this and they were directly involved with this hacking trick.

[samcrypto]

This is how regulation looks like if the regulators are not well-informed or, worse, misinformed of certain aspects of that which they are regulating. This is a perfect example of Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) in the hard world.

The Bangladesh Bank must have been fed wrong information specifically about gaming sites such as Steam and Blizzard for coming up with such a ridiculous policy.

Well, they must have learned lessons from the infamous $81 million Bangladesh Bank cyber heist and are now implementing harsh policies.

I think that case has influence on having strict regulations with online gaming also. That multi-million dollar cyber heist is still one for the history books. Now, they are very careful to the point that they are not reasonable. I think if someone will brought that up, they will review that regulation again.

They are not open with that Multi-million dollar cyber heist at all that's why our local bank wins the case and now filing a case against the Bangladesh Bank for ruining the reputation of RCBC. If they are trying to protect their people from the online fraud then I guess this is not the law that they needed. Its very unfortunate for a gamer to tagged as a gambler and using cryptocurrency now restricting them from buying staffs for their account. Bangladesh will surely regret this restriction especially on cryptocurrency if bitcoin made a huge pump and adopted by many countries, this is not the end for the gamer and the user of cryptocurrency.

[Kemarit]

It trickled down to everything that they think are somewhat related to crypto, but this is really not doing good for the country itself. Yes, they maybe hard to crypto, but credit cards? And then they throw out the "money laundering" card in the table to justify everything? Nah, something is not really right for Bangladesh. And they may be left out in the closet when the whole card are going digital or cashless now.

[avikz]

Lol! It shows why majority of the Asian countries are still counted as "under developed" or "developing" to the rest of the world! It's all about mindset of the people who are running (ruining) the country. Same story here in India where one-exam-wonder bureaucrats are actually seeing cryptocurrencies as a big threat to the economy. But I wonder why foreign stock market investment is banned if a resident is doing it through a registered stock broker. This makes no sense at all!

Even I receive weekly newsletters from my bank and inevitably it alwys has a mention of cryptocurrency and how bad it is for the economy and how hackers are using it to exploit the common mass. So Banks will continue to play this game and try to divert people's mind from the actual truth because they all see cryptocurrency as a threat to any centralized entity.

Good Luck! You may want to open a foreign bank account at this point! There are banks who offer such services but it only makes sense if you are holding a big amount of cryptocurrency.  

[Latviand]

What kind of fucktards are running this country who can't distinguish video game websites from gambling websites ??

It is not that hard to differentiate gambling websites from gaming websites.

The difference is that in gambling websites, they are risking their money to earn more and lose more money. While in video game websites, gamers just want to improve their quality of playing that's why they purchase extra features to enjoy the game better. That's a very different platforms, and hopefully, Bangladesh government will study more about it before making decisions like that.

Probably, they do lack of information about how cryptocurrency regulates, about how it works in the market.

Those of us who have credit, debit, prepaid cards originated in Bangladesh, we're basically fucked. Today I tried to buy a game from steam and saw my card isn't working.

That's a huge disadvantage for you and to your community, even the crypto community who are relying in the use of their assets.

Addressing their mistakes and ignorance should be enlighten by the community.

[AniviaBtc]

This is how regulation looks like if the regulators are not well-informed or, worse, misinformed of certain aspects of that which they are regulating. This is a perfect example of Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) in the hard world.

The Bangladesh Bank must have been fed wrong information specifically about gaming sites such as Steam and Blizzard for coming up with such a ridiculous policy.

Misinformation can really destroy a lot of opportunity especially when it comes to businesses. Bangladesh Government should take away their ignorance towards cryptocurrency, gaming, and gambling, and know the distinction between the three. This can really limit their economy to grow more and adapt on what is the use of digital currency. Steam are a huge third party platform that is using by those gamers and this is probably a huge loss for Bangladesh. I must say that they have a lot of work to do, such as researches and statistics so that they will know what they lack of.

[Little Mouse]

Probably, they do lack of information about how cryptocurrency regulates, about how it works in the market.

Almost all the people who have seat on authority have no knowledge on cryptocurrency. I have seen a lot of reports on bitcoin and cryptocurrency and some interviews with the authentic persons but none of them were right. The only thing here I found right is a book written by Mostofa Tanim. He has shown how it can be a big benefit and why crypto doesn't necessarily mean a bad thing.

[mu_enrico]

Bangladesh Bank just blocked credit, debit and prepaid card purchase / transaction on various video game websites like Steam, Origin, Blizzard and many other third party video games website.

Can't you use different banks? Perhaps your bank is like a government bank or Islamic bank. Not sure how regulations there, but it is surely messed up if all banks behave the same.