1.5 lakh people bet daily in Meherpur, Chuadanga: CID

An estimated 1,00,000 to 1,50,000 people spend between Tk 3 crore and Tk 5 crore every day gambling online from Meherpur and Chuadanga, police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said on Sunday.

CID disclosed the startling information after arresting nine people with alleged links to online gambling on Saturday from these districts.

The arrestee are – alleged ring leader Mahfuzur Rahman alias Nabab, his wife Monira Akter Mili, Swapon Mahmud, Nazmul Haque, Aslam Uddin, Murshid Alam Lipu, Sishir Molla, Sadik, and Masum Rana.

“They collected money from gamblers through mobile financial service Nagad,” Kamrul Ahsan, additional deputy inspector general of CID’s Cyber Crime Unit, told reporters in Dhaka.

Around 60-70 such gangs are active in the western region. The CID official said these gangs use betting sites lxbetbd.com and management.io apart from mobile apps telegram and reddy.

Three Bangladeshis run lxbetbd.com from Russia, Kamrul said without divulging further details about the identities.

Users have to open an account on any online gamble site and buy an e-wallet for betting after paying through Nagad.

Kamrul said several Nagad agents in Meherpur and Chuadanga sold their SIM cards to the gambling rings.

“We suspect that these online gambling gangs are laundering money through hundi. We’re looking into it,” he said.

The CID official said each online gambling agent collected an average of Tk 5-7 lakh from users daily and deposited them into multiple bank accounts. Nabab controlled 10-12 agents.

Police are searching for these accounts through Bangladesh Bank, Kamrul said.