Faiz Ahmed Taiyeb, special assistant to the chief adviser on posts, telecommunications, and ICT, has warned that media portals running advertisements for betting or unsafe content will be shut down at any moment without prior notice.

Despite repeated government warnings, many news portals are still running gambling and unsafe advertisements, he said.

"Almost all media outlets are still actively participating in unsafe content and gambling advertisements, because they earn money from them," he added.

Taiyeb said the authorities had given the media until the day before yesterday to comply.

"We will shut them down at any moment."

Taiyeb made the comments at a meeting titled "Measures to Prevent Online Gambling" held at the headquarters of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) in Dhaka.

"Multiple notices have already been issued. There will be no further public notice — we will simply close them. These sites must be shut down."

Discussing the government's ongoing efforts and challenges in combating online gambling, Taiyeb said the authorities have been using web crawling technology to identify links between gambling activities and certain mobile financial service (MFS) accounts.

He said a list of such accounts is compiled weekly, adding that a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is being developed to shut down portals that run gambling ads.

Since May, 4,820 MFS numbers and 1,331 web portals and links associated with gambling activities have been identified, Taiyeb revealed.

Explaining the difficulties in enforcement, he said that whenever one number is blocked, new ones are created and circulated through groups on Signal or WhatsApp.

They change IPs, slightly modify website names, and restart operations. After MFS numbers or web links are blocked, they even launch new apps — often not publicly available but distributed as APK files.

He also urged mobile operators, broadband service providers, and MFS providers to take steps to prevent online betting.

Taiyeb called for stronger collaboration with law enforcement agencies, adding that representatives from law enforcement need to infiltrate these groups as players in order to identify who is running these networks and how.

He emphasised that curbing betting and pornography in the country requires the active involvement of all stakeholders.

Md Emdad ul Bari, chairman of the BTRC, also spoke at the event.

 

The meeting was attended by officials from relevant ministries, the BTRC, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, MFS providers, and mobile operators.