Enforcement: How hard does the regulator enforce?

Chapter 3 of the Gambling Prevention Act, 2026 sets penalties of up to seven years' imprisonment and a fine of up to Tk 5 crore for most online offences under sections 16, 17, 20 and 23, rising to ten years and the same fine ceiling under section 24(2) for organised or money-laundering-purpose SIM, mobile-financial-service or biometric fraud. Repeat offences attract up to double the applicable maximum under section 28. All offences are cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable under section 34, with online offences tried by the dedicated Cyber Tribunal under section 32. Courts may confiscate money, property, bank accounts, mobile-financial-service accounts, digital wallets, crypto assets, servers, domains, SIMs and devices connected to an offence under section 29, investigating officers may freeze an accused's accounts with court permission under section 31(2), and gambling premises or server infrastructure may be confiscated under section 18(2). This statutory architecture runs alongside an active financial-sector enforcement campaign: the Finance Minister told Parliament on 25 June 2026 that the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit had suspended or frozen approximately 55,000 mobile-financial-service accounts linked to online gambling and digital hundi, with a further approximately 14,000 accounts marked for freezing as reported on 3 August 2026.