Can Gamblers Go to Jail Under Bangladesh’s New Gambling Law?

[Russlenat]

I was just browsing online and saw this gambling news, so I thought of sharing it here. It is about Bangladesh, and I’m sure there are some members here living in that country, so please share your experience or knowledge about this because my understanding is only based on the article I read.

From what I understand, anyone running an online casino or betting platform can face up to 7 years of jail time, but what surprised me more is this part:

https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/js-passes-anti-gambling-law-4212651

“According to the law, anyone directly or indirectly involved in gambling will face up to two years’ imprisonment, a maximum fine of Tk 2,00,000, or both.”

So does that mean even if you are not an operator but only a gambler, you can still go to jail? In other countries, gamblers are often seen more as victims, especially if addiction is involved, but here it looks like they can also be treated as criminals.

What can you say about this?

[Fivestar4everMVP]

So does that mean even if you are not an operator but only a gambler, you can still go to jail? In other countries, gamblers are often seen more as victims, especially if addiction is involved, but here it looks like they can also be treated as criminals.

What can you say about this?

I am not from Bangladesh, I don't live in Bangladesh and have never been to that country before, but what I have to say based on my understanding of the situation here is that if gambling is banned in a country, and so does operating a gambling platform or casino, when an operator of a gambling platform of casino is caught, and along side some gamblers who patronise the operator, they all are guilty of going against the country's law than banned gambling..

This is easy to understand like in a country where gambling is strictly prohibited, then is automatically expected that no casino or gambling house will exist in that country because citizens won't be gambling when it's banned, but when a casino or gambling house is discover and the owner arrested, then every one who has contributed to the casino or gambling house owner will likely get into trouble too because they could be seen or treated as accomplice.

This is my person thought, I leave the final explanation to those who Bangladesh to tell us what this law really means.

[avp2306]

I was just browsing online and saw this gambling news, so I thought of sharing it here. It is about Bangladesh, and I’m sure there are some members here living in that country, so please share your experience or knowledge about this because my understanding is only based on the article I read.

From what I understand, anyone running an online casino or betting platform can face up to 7 years of jail time, but what surprised me more is this part:

https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/js-passes-anti-gambling-law-4212651

“According to the law, anyone directly or indirectly involved in gambling will face up to two years’ imprisonment, a maximum fine of Tk 2,00,000, or both.”

So does that mean even if you are not an operator but only a gambler, you can still go to jail? In other countries, gamblers are often seen more as victims, especially if addiction is involved, but here it looks like they can also be treated as criminals.

What can you say about this?

Reading that article it really seems that Bangladesh government became more stricter on their gambling law, since we could see that the operators will not only get penalize. Also those regular gamblers can get punished on that law to.

If that's the case the situation happening and the new law implemented by their government is really scary. For sure numbers of gamblers will decline, because many will provably got afraid to continue gambling and just decide to quit to follow the law to avoid getting punish.

[shinratensei_]

Afaik, majority of muslim countries are applying the same regulation. They see user as a part of gambling ecosystem. That's why they're giving punishment to the users too.

Apart from that it's clearly stated "ANY", which refers to the all of parties involved in this gambling ecosystem. Whether you're a. user, operator or something else. You will get your punishment.
However, the thing that shocked me is that the punishment is getting even heavier for those who getting caught used online gambling.

It's clearly stated that online gambler who getting caught will be punished 5 - 7 years in prison.

[Charles-Tim]

What can you say about this?

From my findings, yes. Anyone that is found gambling in Bangladesh may be imprisoned. That shows how strict the country is to anyone that is gambling.

Muslim is the most common religion in the country with about 91% of the population. So this should not be surprising at all.

[lionheart78]

https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/js-passes-anti-gambling-law-4212651

“According to the law, anyone directly or indirectly involved in gambling will face up to two years’ imprisonment, a maximum fine of Tk 2,00,000, or both.”

So does that mean even if you are not an operator but only a gambler, you can still go to jail? In other countries, gamblers are often seen more as victims, especially if addiction is involved, but here it looks like they can also be treated as criminals.

What can you say about this?

It is clear that the law in a country that ban gambling and consider it as illegal activity, will punish those involved in gambling directly or indirectly, to be penalized. There is no need to dig deeper, but if one can pay the given fine, they can skip prison, depending on the severity of the offense.

This is not a new policy, even in my country, any people who are caught in illegal gambling activity, may it be playing a toss coin outside the house as long as it is in a public area, or playing cards game in a "hot" spot, they can be arrested and put to prison and can be released if they bail or pay a certain amount.

I have seen this happening too many times in my community. Police raiding, gamblers are grabbed, pay fine and then they are released.  Those who has no money to pay for the fine are left sleeping in the prison cell for some days until their relative collected the money.  Lucky for these people, the police saw them as a source of extra income and did not file a criminal offense, just a log, and had them pay for their freedom.

[KiaKia]

I was just browsing online and saw this gambling news, so I thought of sharing it here. It is about Bangladesh, and I’m sure there are some members here living in that country, so please share your experience or knowledge about this because my understanding is only based on the article I read.

From what I understand, anyone running an online casino or betting platform can face up to 7 years of jail time, but what surprised me more is this part:

https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/js-passes-anti-gambling-law-4212651

“According to the law, anyone directly or indirectly involved in gambling will face up to two years’ imprisonment, a maximum fine of Tk 2,00,000, or both.”

So does that mean even if you are not an operator but only a gambler, you can still go to jail? In other countries, gamblers are often seen more as victims, especially if addiction is involved, but here it looks like they can also be treated as criminals.

What can you say about this?

Bangladesh is a Muslim country right? So the law is possible and also there is a possibility that gambling have turned many lives around for worse and the only thing they can do is bring up a law to scare people just to keep them under control.

If the case is about rising addiction then it can be that this is the only solution, there are few members from Bangladesh on here and I hope they will drop facts about this in this thread just to confirm things.

In Nigeria right now it's getting out of control already, it's hard to make a living and youths are getting into gambling but the result is so negative that many are asking for help already.

[Merit.s]

Since gambling is banned in Bangladesh and a fine has been put on whomever, gambles it means that gambling is illegal and against their law. Therefore, if you are caught gambling be ready to go in for it because you have been warned and a good citizen will always obey the law of his country.

Though, some of them will still gamble in an online crypto casino but it's better to stay safe and avoid the wrath of the law.

[MAAManda]

So does that mean even if you are not an operator but only a gambler, you can still go to jail? In other countries, gamblers are often seen more as victims, especially if addiction is involved, but here it looks like they can also be treated as criminals.

Gamblers, whether addicted or not are considered offenders in most Asian countries, I can relate to that because I'm from Indonesia & we have similar laws. As I understand it, the gambler is the party directly involved. Things get messy when those indirectly involved also face imprisonment & fines, meaning third parties could be subject to the law. BTW, we have a campaign manager from that country on this forum.

[Btcdeybodi]

I am not from Bangladesh but when a law states ''anyone directly or indirectly'' it covers every aspect whether you are a gambler or a gambling operator. A gambler is an enabler to gambling so i think the law did not exclude them. However, even if the ban was only targeted at the gambling operators, it will still be difficult for gamblers because they won't have any medium of gambling. Such a harsh law imposed by the Bangladesh government and the worst part is that they can't even gamble online because it will attract a sentence of 5 years if caught. This is so sad for the Bangladesh gamblers and i know their will be many offenders because there are a lot of gamblers from Bangladesh.

[Vaculin]

This is an approach to really ban gambling so no one will gamble. It is very strict because imagine, you only placed a bet but once you are discovered, you can be jailed for 2 years and also pay a monetary penalty. That is a lot to lose.

So if I were living in that country, I would not dare to gamble. Or if I really wanted to gamble, then maybe the best option is to leave that country and move to another country where gambling is not illegal. But since Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country and gambling is generally considered prohibited in Islam, maybe that is also one of the reasons why they are strict in banning it.

[noorman0]

In my country, organizers and players are both legal subjects and can be subject to sanctions, including imprisonment. So I can assume the same applies in Bangladesh. But calling them criminals seems like an overstatement, as the impact isn't always about harming others. Sanctions are the consequence of wrongdoing.

[The Founding Titan]

You can't expect them to punish operators without also punishment their clients because the fact remains that if there are no clients then the operators will be out of business, so for the country this is actually a smart move, restrict both parties and less people will be likely to go against the rules, though I would still say that it is very likely that illegal gambling will still be a thing in the country unless they put in effective systems in place to prevent that from happening.

[HelliumZ]

What can you say about this?

Bangladesh has passed the Gambling Prevention Bill 2026, where if a person or institution is caught in a gambling situation, it has been provided that if he is caught, he will be imprisoned for a minimum of 7 years and fined up to 50 million taka. So far, no institution or person has been arrested under this law in Bangladesh, but this is also an inconsistent bill where it is not possible for any institution or person to be fined up to 50 million taka if he is arrested. Most gamblers in Bangladesh basically live in the low range, that is, their financial problems are always at their highest, how will he pay the fine of 50 million taka if he is arrested.

[_act_]

I am not from Bangladesh but when a law states ''anyone directly or indirectly'' it covers every aspect whether you are a gambler or a gambling operator. A gambler is an enabler to gambling so i think the law did not exclude them. However, even if the ban was only targeted at the gambling operators, it will still be difficult for gamblers because they won't have any medium of gambling. Such a harsh law imposed by the Bangladesh government and the worst part is that they can't even gamble online because it will attract a sentence of 5 years if caught. This is so sad for the Bangladesh gamblers and i know their will be many offenders because there are a lot of gamblers from Bangladesh.

This world is funny, there are governments that have harsh laws which are not good, and this is just one of them. It will be good if the person can be sent for community service for some months instead of sentencing him to years in prison. That is enough to show that the government is against gambling, but not in a way that should affect the citizens like they committed crime.

I do not think people from the country will all not be gambling, there are underground gambling in the country despite the harsh law against gambling.

[coinrifft]

It's looks like they are very strict with this new gambling law. Maybe before they didn't consider to punish gamblers as it might not be as big in their country. But since the proliferation of online gambling, there could be a call from their people and their government to implement stricter law.

And besides, it might also their predominant religion that is against gambling. So I wouldn't be surprised if they are going to implement this to curb out gambling in their country and minimize if not stop it for good.

[Moreno233]

I think this is very bad for people from Bangladesh  because if this law is implemented as it was written, a lot of players will go to jail because that is what the law says. I don't know if other forms of gambling are allowed in Bangladesh but the government can be this angry anout online casinos, it means gambling is generally not accepted in the country. People from that country should just be careful not to fall victim to this because the law is not lenient to players.

[freedomgo]

It's looks like they are very strict with this new gambling law. Maybe before they didn't consider to punish gamblers as it might not be as big in their country. But since the proliferation of online gambling, there could be a call from their people and their government to implement stricter law.

And besides, it might also their predominant religion that is against gambling. So I wouldn't be surprised if they are going to implement this to curb out gambling in their country and minimize if not stop it for good.

Gambling was already illegal in this country even under the old law. This new law is only an updated version since the last one was made years ago and did not include online gambling yet. So now they adapted to the current trend and made it clearer to the people.

Online gambling is everywhere, but in a country where belief is one of the bases of law, there is nothing you can do but comply or face the consequences.

[rachael9385]

I did my research on this and u saw that it is actually true, a person can be jailed for engaging in online gambling according to the new and current law passed to prevent gambling addiction in Bangladesh, I don't really know if this is sustainable or if it's actually going to make people gamble less. I think gamblers would always find a way to continue gambling, they will simply do it smartly to avoid getting caught.

[Awaklara]

What can you say about this?

I don't really know about the situation in Bangladesh, but in countries that actually have laws saying gambling is illegal, it's not just casino operators who can get in trouble, gamblers can also face legal action and fines.
If Bangladesh has a ban on all gambling related activities, then of course, gamblers would also be punished if caught, not treated as victims of gambling addiction.