19/08/2026
IF YOUR MOBILE MONEY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN RESTRICTED AND YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH GAMBLING OR HUNDI — WRITE TO US.
We help citizens and honest businesses, free of charge, to work out what happened to their account and what to do next.
We are not a government body and we cannot lift a freeze. But we can help you identify what class of problem you actually have, gather the documents that matter, choose the correct complaint route — and make sure your case reaches the regulator.
WHAT WE DO
— We go through your situation and explain what class of problem you actually have: a KYC update request, a dispute over a recipient, a technical fault, or a compliance review.
— We help you assemble the documents a provider normally asks for: trade licence, invoices, sales history, an explanation of the source of funds.
— We tell you the correct complaint route and the order of steps, so you do not lose weeks writing to the wrong place.
— We include your case in an anonymised summary for Bangladesh Bank, the BFIU and the relevant parliamentary committee.
WHAT WE DO NOT DO
— We do not help anyone bypass a block.
— We do not work with anyone involved in gambling, hundi, or trading in other people's SIMs, NIDs and accounts. We turn those requests down.
— We take no money and we promise no one that we will "remove a flag". Anyone offering that for a fee is a fraudster.
— We do not publish your personal data.
WHAT TO SEND US
1. The date and time the restriction appeared.
2. The provider and the account type: personal, merchant or agent.
3. The exact wording of the message in the app or from customer care.
4. Your support ticket number and the date you raised it.
5. Whether you received a reply, and how many days have passed.
6. For a business: whether you hold a trade licence, and what year you started operating.
We do not publish personal data. We will hand an anonymised summary, together with our methodology, to Bangladesh Bank, the BFIU and the relevant parliamentary committee, so that this debate runs on figures rather than impressions.
BE CAREFUL: FRAUDSTERS WORK THIS TOPIC
Nobody can "remove a flag" from your account for money. bKash separately warns about calls from people posing as staff, using the line that your account has been blocked by mistake. A real employee never asks for your PIN or OTP.
The official complaint route is free: your provider's helpline first, then its complaint cell with your documents, then the Customer Interest Protection Centre of Bangladesh Bank on 16236.
bKash fraud warning:
[https://www.bkash.com/en/help/avoid-fraud](https://www.bkash.com/en/help/avoid-fraud)
THESE SITUATIONS ALREADY EXIST
Below are real messages from user groups, and one written reply from a bank. Every one of them is linked, so you can open the original and judge for yourself.
We do not present them as proof that these particular people were restricted by mistake. For most such messages it is impossible to establish either the date or the reason for the restriction. We present them because they show a repeating pattern: the person is never told the reason, and does not know where to go.
1. Group "bKash App Users of Bangladesh" — date not established
"My bcash account has been stoped automatically. I don't know why and how. I'm instructed to contact with customer care but surprisingly the call is not reaching…"
Three features at once: the stop was automatic, the reason was never given to the account holder, and support was unreachable.
Source:
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/bKashAppUsers/posts/752368401883135/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/bKashAppUsers/posts/752368401883135/)
2. Group "Bank Account And Card User Community Bangladesh" — date not established
"For several months, Bkash company has been blocking NPSB service in my account. Due to which I am not able to make BANGLA QR payment. When I contacted customer care, they said that this service in my…"
The restriction is narrow, it has lasted for months, and the account holder never got a clear explanation out of customer care.
Source:
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/bankaccountandbankcardbd/posts/1768143134053779/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/bankaccountandbankcardbd/posts/1768143134053779/)
3. Group "bKash App Users of Bangladesh" — a customer quoting the provider's own message, date not established
"সুস্পষ্ট অভিযোগের ভিত্তিতে আপনার বিকাশ একাউন্টটি সাময়িকভাবে বন্ধ করা হয়েছিল। এ বিষয়ে সুষ্ঠু অনুসন্ধানের ভিত্তিতে আপনার একাউন্টটি পার্মানেন্টলি বন্ধ করার সিন্ধান্ত নেয়া হয়েছে।"
Translation: "On the basis of a specific complaint your bKash account was temporarily closed. Following a proper inquiry into the matter, a decision has been taken to close your account permanently."
This is not an example of an error: an inquiry was in fact carried out. But the account holder is told neither who complained nor what about — and therefore cannot contest the decision.
Source:
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/bKashAppUsers/posts/1888150631638234/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/bKashAppUsers/posts/1888150631638234/)
4. A written reply from Eastern Bank Limited to a cardholder, March 2023
"As per our investigation we found that you are trying on a restricted merchant (Steam). This site provides Digital Media Games and that's why your transactions are being declined."
A lawful service ended up in a restricted category, and a law-abiding customer could not pay. The decisive detail: the payment failed on EBL and BRAC cards but went through on Standard Chartered, City Bank and Amex. So this is one institution's own configuration, not a requirement of law.
Source:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/bangladesh/comments/11xis6d/cannot_buy_games_from_steam/](https://www.reddit.com/r/bangladesh/comments/11xis6d/cannot_buy_games_from_steam/)
WHY WE ARE STARTING OUR OWN COLLECTION OF CASES
There are almost no verifiable, documented cases of honest businesses in the public domain. Searching for phrases like "account blocked" returns three entirely different categories: warnings about fraudulent calls, technical faults in the app, and deserved blocks of dishonest sellers following buyer complaints.
People who are restricted by mistake rarely write about it publicly. The absence of data suits everyone except those harmed — which is precisely why we are opening this collection.
THE LAW AND THE FIGURES, BRIEFLY
The law in force is জুয়া প্রতিরোধ আইন, ২০২৬ — the Gambling Prevention Act 2026, Act No. 98 of 2026. Parliament passed it unanimously on 30 June 2026, it took effect on 1 July, and it repealed the colonial-era Public Gambling Act 1867. Before the vote, proposals from eight lawmakers to open the bill to public opinion and further scrutiny were rejected, and so were the amendments tabled.
Full text of the Act:
[http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-print-1727.html](http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-print-1727.html)
THE FIGURES
Around 55,000 MFS accounts frozen — the Finance Minister in parliament, 24 June 2026.
[https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/bfiu-freezes-55000-mfs-accounts-over-gambling-hundi-allegations-khosru-1471416](https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/bfiu-freezes-55000-mfs-accounts-over-gambling-hundi-allegations-khosru-1471416)
Around 24,000 accounts in a single month — a senior BFIU official, 3 August 2026.
[https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/bfiu-freeze-14000-more-mfs-accounts-over-online-gambling-hundi-links-1505811](https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/bfiu-freeze-14000-more-mfs-accounts-over-online-gambling-hundi-links-1505811)
67.2 per cent — the share of cash in the value of all transactions in 2025.
[https://www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/bangladeshs-cashless-economy-ambition-faces-trust-deficit-1507636](https://www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/bangladeshs-cashless-economy-ambition-faces-trust-deficit-1507636)
We deliberately do not add the first two figures together. Nothing in the public record establishes whether they overlap, and no consolidated public total exists. What is certain is that the scale runs to several tens of thousands of accounts.
PENALTIES
Conventional offline gambling — up to 2 years or up to Tk 2 lakh.
Online or remote gambling, sections 5 and 16 — up to 5 years or up to Tk 1 crore.
Participation in online betting, sections 6 and 17 — up to 7 years or up to Tk 5 crore.
Gambling equipment and software, sections 8 and 19 — up to 3 years or up to Tk 10 lakh.
Fake SIMs, another person's NID or biometrics, sections 13 and 24 — up to 7 years or up to Tk 50 lakh.
THE SECTIONS THAT DEFINE THE SURVEILLANCE REGIME
Section 36 — search and seizure without prior court approval.
Sections 37 and 38 — blocking of apps, websites, servers and domains without judicial authorisation.
Section 39 — freezing of bank accounts, MFS accounts and wallets, with prior judicial approval.
Section 40 — a national digital blacklist database: NID, SIM, account, wallet, device, domain, IP.
Section 41 — the NID–SIM–MFS linking system, biometric verification, facial recognition.
Section 44 — AI Monitoring System, Deep Packet Inspection, Risk Scoring System, Transaction Monitoring System.
THE ONE THING TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE MECHANISM
The mass freezes are not carried out under this Act. Their legal basis is section 23(1)(c) of the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012: an administrative procedure, no court required, for up to 30 days, extendable up to seven further times — that is, up to eight months in total. That is exactly why the measure scales to tens of thousands of accounts.
The BFIU described the procedure in its own words: "In the past month, we have frozen 10,000 MFS accounts. Based on a report submitted by an agency, we have decided to freeze another 14,000 accounts today. The process is already underway."
This is freezing in batches against lists handed over by an agency, not an individual decision on each account. And that is also why someone whose number ended up on a list by accident can be caught by it.
WHAT THOSE IN AUTHORITY HAVE SAID
We are not opening a new subject. The question of there being no route of appeal for those affected was raised in parliament itself on the day the Act was passed, and has since been repeated by judges, Supreme Court lawyers and specialist organisations.
IN PARLIAMENT, 30 JUNE 2026
"The bill does not appear to provide adequate avenues for those affected to seek judicial remedy or challenge such actions before a court."
— Akhter Hossain, Member of Parliament for Rangpur-4, NCP
"The bill contains several positive measures to tackle online gambling. However, some of its provisions are controversial and leave considerable room for misuse."
— Akhter Hossain, Member of Parliament for Rangpur-4, NCP
Section 523 of the Code of Criminal Procedure allows police to seize property without prior court approval, but requires officers to inform a magistrate immediately afterwards and obtain the necessary authorisation. The new law does not even require them to seek that authorisation afterwards.
— Nazibur Rahman, Member of Parliament for Pabna-1, who called the Act timely legislation
"However, the proposed act contains certain loopholes and provisions that require further review and discussions."
— Nahid Islam, Opposition Chief Whip, NCP
"By the time court permission is obtained, there is a strong possibility that the location and evidence of the offence will have disappeared."
— Salahuddin Ahmed, Home Affairs Minister, responding to the objections to section 36
Parliamentary debate reported here:
[https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/gambling-prevention-bill-passed-police-can-now-search-seize-evidence-without-prior-court](https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/gambling-prevention-bill-passed-police-can-now-search-seize-evidence-without-prior-court)
JUDGES AND LAWYERS
"The Act makes no room for an aggrieved person to challenge the actions. The lack of independent oversight or an appeals mechanism raises severe due process concerns."
— Md. Ziaur Rahman, District and Sessions Judge, Bangladesh Judicial Service, in his legal analysis of the Act, Bangladesh Law Digest, 8 August 2026
"Using artificial intelligence can cause algorithmic mistakes, bias, or random results. AI should function solely as a decision-support tool under human supervision."
— Md. Ziaur Rahman, on the use of artificial intelligence under section 44
"The Act does not specify criteria for inclusion in the database, the length of time information can be retained, or the process for review and removal. This results in people or entities being listed without sufficient notice or meaningful opportunity to challenge their listing."
— Md. Ziaur Rahman, on the blacklist under section 40
Full legal analysis:
[https://bdlawdigest.org/gambling-prevention-act-2026-analysis.html](https://bdlawdigest.org/gambling-prevention-act-2026-analysis.html)
"Privacy is an individual's constitutional right. Therefore, such activities are not in accordance with either the constitution or the law. This is not a mere procedural formality but a fundamental safeguard of individual freedom."
— Moshiur Rahman, Supreme Court lawyer
"Any exercise of power must be reasonable, justified, and subject to legal scrutiny. Searching mobile phones or individuals without proper grounds or authorisation constitutes a serious breach of personal privacy and is unlawful."
— Mohammad Soaliman Tushar, Supreme Court lawyer
"It is crucial to balance security measures with the protection of individual freedoms, ensuring that privacy rights are not compromised in the process."
— Abdullah-Al-Monzur Hussain, Professor of Law, Dhaka International University
Lawyers and constitutional concerns reported here:
[https://www.dhakastream.net/bangladesh/new-anti-gambling-law-could-undermine-right-privacy-196512](https://www.dhakastream.net/bangladesh/new-anti-gambling-law-could-undermine-right-privacy-196512)
EXPERTS, OPERATORS AND ANALYSTS
Preventing gambling and betting offences is undoubtedly necessary. But room has been left to curtail the fundamental rights of users of digital devices on the basis of an authorised officer's belief, with no safeguards and no accountability.
— Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director, Transparency International Bangladesh, translated from Bengali
Across the world, human interaction is what is being built into AI systems. There is no scope for trusting artificial intelligence alone. And in special circumstances it is the state itself that curtails citizens' rights — so who will keep the state under watch?
— B. M. Moinul Hossain, Director, Institute of Information Technology, University of Dhaka, translated from Bengali
Both quoted here:
[https://www.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/azags1vc5w](https://www.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/azags1vc5w)
"For send-money or person-to-person transactions, neither Nagad nor anyone else can know the transaction's true purpose."
— Muhammad Zahidul Islam, Head of Media and Communication, Nagad
[https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/banking/bb-orders-mfs-providers-stop-online-gambling-transactions-1276586](https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/banking/bb-orders-mfs-providers-stop-online-gambling-transactions-1276586)
"For a low-income demographic or a micro-merchant, the acute lack of agile consumer protection makes paper currency their only reliable defence mechanism against both systemic friction and financial ruin. If the central bank and MFS providers cannot technologically guarantee that a defrauded user's money will be restored within hours rather than months, the public will never abandon the safety of physical cash."
— Asif Shahriyar Sushmit, policy analyst, former consultant to the ICT Division
WHY THIS IS AN ECONOMIC QUESTION, NOT ONLY A QUESTION OF FAIRNESS
Bangladesh aims to become a cashless economy by 2031. In 2025, cash accounted for 67.2 per cent of the value of all transactions and digital payments for only 32.8 per cent. The informal sector is 80 to 85 per cent of the workforce and, by various estimates, between 30 and 43 per cent of GDP — and it runs almost entirely on cash. The state meanwhile spends in the order of Tk 20,000 to 22,000 crore a year printing and handling currency.
Hence our central economic argument. Every mistaken freeze without a fast and comprehensible review works against the very purpose of enforcement. It does not merely ruin one shop — it pushes people and small traders back into cash and into the informal channels, hundi included, that the Act was written to close. A small business with no digital transaction history also loses access to formal credit, because banks have nothing on which to assess it.
Trust here is not an abstract value. It is a condition for the financial security system to work at all.
THE UNFREEZING MECHANISM ALREADY PARTLY EXISTS — IT NEEDS TO BE SWITCHED ON
We are not asking anyone to invent a procedure from scratch. The concept of a false positive, and the procedure for lifting a freeze, are already defined in Bangladesh's subordinate legislation. In the Anti-Terrorism Rules 2013, rule 2(c) defines a false positive as a freeze that further inquiry shows to be unwarranted, and rule 3(h) gives the BFIU authority to withdraw it on the application of the aggrieved person.
But the construction is defective. The review committee is formed at discretion rather than as a standing body. There is no published procedure and no outer time limit. The burden of proving non-involvement rests on the person harmed. An application for reconsideration may be filed only once. And where the freeze was imposed at the request of another government agency, withdrawing it requires the agreement of the very agency that drew up the list.
Anti-Terrorism Rules 2013, official gazette:
[https://www.dpp.gov.bd/upload_file/gazettes/6765_50180.pdf](https://www.dpp.gov.bd/upload_file/gazettes/6765_50180.pdf)
OUR PROPOSALS
To the Government, Bangladesh Bank, the BFIU and the relevant parliamentary committee.
1. KEEP THE PRESSURE ON THE ORGANISERS, NOT ON SMALL TRADERS
The priority should be master and super agents, the payment layers servicing betting operations, and the channels moving money out through cryptocurrency and hundi. That is where the damage is concentrated.
2. MAKE THE FALSE POSITIVE REVIEW COMMITTEE MANDATORY
The rules currently say the BFIU "may" form a committee of at least three members not below the rank of Deputy Director. It should read "shall", with a published procedure, a single intake channel for applications and an outer time limit. We propose 15 working days, by analogy with the limit already in force under the Anti-Terrorism Rules 2013.
3. REQUIRE HUMAN REVIEW BEFORE A FREEZE
Where an account's indicators match the profile of a micro-business — a trade licence, a sales history, KYC in order — a human being should confirm the decision. Judge Ziaur Rahman's formulation is exact: AI should function solely as a decision-support tool under human supervision.
4. RECORD A SPECIFIC GROUND, NOT A "SUSPICION"
In the case on arrests without warrant, the High Court issued 15 directives in 2003, which the Appellate Division upheld with modifications in April 2016: suspicion alone is not enough, and the officer must record specific reasons in the station diary. The same standard should apply to freezing an account, instead of a reference to a number appearing on a list.
5. TELL THE ACCOUNT HOLDER THE CLASS OF GROUND
A person must be able to understand what has happened: a KYC update request, a dispute over a recipient, a technical block, or a compliance review. Without knowing the class of the problem, they physically cannot defend themselves.
6. MAKE THE RULES UNDER SECTION 40 BEFORE SCALING THE BLACKLIST
Criteria for inclusion, a data retention period, mandatory notification and a removal procedure. Otherwise a bar on opening accounts against a flagged NID becomes an indefinite loss of rights with no court decision behind it.
7. PUBLISH THE STATISTICS
How many accounts have been frozen, how many unfrozen, how many applications were accepted as false positives, and what the average processing time is. Section 47 of the Act expressly empowers the Government to publish statistics and reports. Open statistics on error strengthen confidence in enforcement rather than undermining it.
8. SEPARATE THE FLOWS TECHNICALLY
Give micro-businesses a simple, cheap merchant product, so that lawful trade stops looking like the collection of bets. A micro-merchant in Bangladesh today pays a merchant discount rate of around 1 per cent; in several countries that rate is zero for this category or is subsidised by the regulator.
IN CLOSING
Firm action against illegal gambling and protection for law-abiding citizens and businesses are not alternatives to choose between. They are two parts of one task.
A financial security system that cannot recognise and correct its own errors quickly loses its most important asset: the trust of the public. And without trust, money moves to where there is no supervision at all — which is precisely where the Act is trying to move it away from.
We are ready for dialogue and for professional work with the regulator.
Bangladesh Civil Security Network
