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Gambling Prevention Act 2026: What Changed on 1 July

By BestCasinosBD Editorial TeamUpdated

Bangladesh's Parliament passed the Gambling Prevention Act 2026 on 30 June 2026, a week after Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed tabled the bill. It came into force on 1 July as Act No. 98 of 2026 and repealed the Public Gambling Act 1867, according to The Business Standard and The Daily Star.

Key points

  • Online gambling is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and/or a Tk 1 crore fine.
  • Online betting carries up to 7 years and/or Tk 5 crore. Reports differ on whether this covers people placing bets (The Daily Star) or those operating betting (The Business Standard).
  • Running a platform, bookmaking, or using VPNs, proxies and mirror sites to run or hide gambling can bring up to 7 years and Tk 5 crore.
  • Advertising, sponsorship, affiliate marketing and referral campaigns can bring up to 3 years and Tk 50 lakh. Reports say this also applies to influencers and athletes.
  • Laundering gambling money through fake SIM cards, mobile financial services or crypto by organised groups can bring up to 10 years and Tk 5 crore.
  • Match-fixing is named as an offence: up to 7 years and Tk 1 crore, and up to 5 years and Tk 50 lakh for spot-fixing. For a current cricket case, see the BPL corruption charges.

Why it matters

The 1867 Act was written for physical gaming houses and did not cover the internet. Online gambling had been covered by section 20 of the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025, which by 2026 was part of the Cyber Security Act 2026. Parliament dropped that section on 30 June 2026, when the new law took over.

For players, the practical effect is that using offshore casino and betting sites from Bangladesh is now clearly a criminal offence, whatever licence the operator holds abroad, and using a VPN does not change that. Read our full legal guide.

Later amendments and enforcement updates are in our news section.

Sources

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BestCasinosBD Editorial Team

Fact-checking

The editorial team checks bonus, licence and payment claims against operators' own public pages and official sources, and records the date of each check.