Bangladesh

Gambling in Bangladesh is prohibited primarily under the colonial-era Public Gambling Act 1867, which bans public gambling and common gaming houses with no path to licensing for sports betting, horse-race betting or prediction markets. As a Muslim-majority country, the prohibition is reinforced by religious and cultural opposition. The Cyber Security Ordinance 2025 (promulgated 21 May 2025) explicitly criminalized online gambling — operating, promoting, participating in or advertising platforms — with penalties up to 2 years’ imprisonment and/or Tk 1 crore fines, tasking the National Cyber Security Agency, CID and BTRC with enforcement.

By January 2026 authorities reported blocking thousands of gambling websites, hundreds of apps and tens of thousands of social-media links. There is no operating racecourse (the historic Ramna/Dhaka Racecourse was closed after independence), so horse-race betting is unlawful. In June 2026 the Cabinet gave in-principle approval to a draft Gambling Prevention Act 2026 to replace the 1867 Act, but it remains under legislative vetting, so as of mid-2026 all betting verticals remain prohibited.

No legal gambling means no statutory betting age.

The Bangladeshi approach to online betting resembles many other countries on the planet; it is illegal in theory but there is little enforcement on the individual level. People who bet online in Bangladesh are in violation of the law, and law-enforcing agencies have stepped up monitoring of online gambling. That leaves us in the situation today in which many people still bet online every day, although the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025 has made participating in online gambling a criminal offence.

Bangladesh Betting Sites

We’ll cover Bangladeshi gambling laws in more detail below, but be aware that the legal risk is no longer minimal. For the most part, authorities have other priorities. The main thing to avoid would be starting your own online gambling site in Bangladesh.

No mainstream betting sites operate from within Bangladeshi borders, but plenty of foreign sites are more than happy to accept your business. Those foreign sites are hosted in jurisdictions where online betting is licensed, though betting with them from Bangladesh is now a criminal offence under the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025.

Bangladesh Gambling Laws

The main law that governs gambling in Bangladesh, the Public Gambling Act 1867, is severely outdated, which is why online betting is now addressed directly by the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025. The Public Gambling Act of 1867 was written 150 years ago and includes a sweeping prohibition on nearly all forms of gambling other than state-sanctioned lotteries. If gambling takes place anywhere else, it is considered a criminal act — one that carried relatively minor fines and short jail stints under the 1867 Act, though online gambling now draws up to two years in jail under the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025.

There are two key pieces of text in the law that outline gambling offenses. One of these applies to those who operate “gaming houses” while the other applies to those who are found in gaming houses. In short, they have one punishment for those who operate gambling games and another for those who participate.

Here’s how the law reads for each:

Whoever, being the owner or occupier, or having the use, of any house, tent, room, space or walled enclosure, situate within the limits to which this Act applies, opens, keeps or uses the same as a common gaming-house;

and whoever, being the owner or occupier of any such house, tent, room, space or walled enclosure as aforesaid, knowingly or wilfully permits the same to be opened, occupied, used or kept by any other person as a common gaming-house;

and whoever has the care or management of, or in any manner assists in conducting, the business of any house, tent, room, space or walled enclosure as aforesaid, opened, occupied, used or kept for the purpose aforesaid;

and whoever advances or furnishes money for the purpose of gaming with persons frequenting such house, tent, room, space or walled enclosure,

shall be liable, on conviction before any Magistrate to a fine not exceeding two hundred taka, or to imprisonment of either description, as defined in the 8[ Penal Code] for any term not exceeding three months.

In short, you would face a fine of up to 200 Bangladeshi taka and up to three months in jail if you were caught running your own underground gambling den. The next section applies specifically to the people caught inside such gaming houses:

Whoever is found in any such house, tent, room, space, or walled enclosure, playing or gaming with cards, dice, counters, money or other instruments of gaming, or is found there present for the purpose of gaming, whether playing for any money, wager, stake or otherwise, shall be liable, on conviction before any Magistrate, to a fine not exceeding one hundred taka or to imprisonment of either description, as defined in the 9[ Penal Code], for any term not exceeding one month; and any person found in any common gaming-house during any gaming or playing therein shall be presumed, until the contrary be proved, to have been there for the purpose of gaming.

The gist of this part is that you can be fined up to 100 Bangladeshi taka and face up to one month in jail if you are caught playing unauthorized gambling games.

The punishments for these offenses are relatively minor compared to some other countries, but it is still best to avoid the trouble in the first place. What isn’t 100% clear is how these 150-year old laws actually work in the age of the internet.

The Public Gambling Act defines a gaming as house as “any house, room, tent, or walled enclosure, or space, or vehicle or any place whatsoever in which any instruments of gaming are kept or used for the profit or gain…”

It takes no great leap of the imagination to see how Bangladeshi authorities interpret this definition to include online betting sites. The key phrase in there is “any place whatsoever.” Thus, this is the basis by which Bangladesh asserts its authority to prohibit online gambling.

The practical risk for merely playing has historically been low, but since 2025 participating in online gambling is itself a criminal offence punishable by up to two years in jail. Online gamblers from Bangladesh have repeatedly reported that the risk is low. Even so, the risk is real and you should only proceed if you’re comfortable accepting that risk.