Online gambling websites are controlled by Russia, according to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police. All the money collected from the agents hired in the country is converted to hundi or cryptocurrency by the app operators and sent to Russia. The CID has arrested six people associated with various online gambling sites.
They were arrested on Thursday (August 31) in the Mohammadpur, Banshree, and Agargaon areas of the capital and the Shahjadpur police station area of Sirajganj.
CID spokesperson and Additional Superintendent of Police, Azad Rahman, confirmed this information on Friday (September 1) night. Arrested are Md. Rezaul Karim (31), Md. Saikat Rahman (30), Md. Sadiqul Islam (28), Nazmul Ahsan (30), Md. Touhid Hossain (25) and Md. Zakir Hossain (34). During the arrest, 17 different brands of mobile phones, 21 SIMs, four laptops, seven desktop computers, two tabs, and cash of around four lakh taka were seized from them.
CID Spokesperson and Additional Superintendent of Police Azad Rahman said that during the regular monitoring of CID’s Cyber Police Center, betting sites named online platforms Mail Bet, One X Bet, and Bet Oina came to notice. CID observes that there are many Bangladeshi customers participating in betting or gambling.
Later, a team of CID Cyber Intelligence and Risk Management conducted a raid yesterday (Thursday) in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur, Banshri Agargaon, and Shahzadpur police station areas of Sirajganj district after analyzing various data from these sites. Six people were arrested in the operation.
He also said that all these online gambling websites are mainly controlled by Russia. Managers are appointed for local control in different countries. The manager hires trusted people as gambling agents in Bangladesh. Gambling agents have technically skilled people to manage all these apps.
Arrested Rezaul Karim was conducting this gambling activity by creating an IT lab with seven computers and four laptops in his house, along with some technically skilled people. MFS agents like Sadiqul and Zakir Hossain joined them for gambling money transactions. With the help of some unscrupulous employees of MFS Distribution House like Aarti Nazmul and Touhid, this gang can collect agent SIMs and carry out online gambling-related activities seamlessly.
The CID spokesperson said that the arrested gang was conducting gambling activities in different areas of Dhaka and in remote areas of the country. In the interrogation of the arrested, it is known that Matiur Rahman, a resident of Shariatpur, who is staying in Moscow, Russia, is basically in charge of these sites in Bangladesh. Ashiqur Rahman of Jessore is his associate.
Online Gambling Ring Thrives with IT Lab and Insider Collaborators
These two, together with Saikat and Rezaul, control these three websites in Bangladesh. Through them, Online gambling agents collect money from gamblers from all over Bangladesh using the MFS (Agent SIM) used on the website. Then every month, this cycle transacts crores of rupees through MFS and various banks.
They get a small portion of the money as a commission. All the money collected from the gamblers is converted to hundi or cryptocurrency by the app operators and sent to Russia. He also said that a case under the Digital Security Act has been filed against the arrested at DMP’s Paltan police station.
