Bangladesh, a predominantly Islamic country with close to 90% Muslims, has a strong attitude towards gambling in all shapes and forms. Gambling in this country is frowned upon, primarily because of its Islamic values and its robust and traditional structure of society.
These factors have led to negative public attitudes and religious restrictions on online gambling in the country. Let us break down these complex factors to understand why this is so.
Influence of Islam as a Religion
90% of the Bangladeshi population are practising Muslims. According to Islam, gambling (referred to as maisir or qimar) is strictly forbidden. In the Quran, gambling is explicitly prohibited because of its relation to immoral behaviour, deviation from regular prayer, and other damaging social consequences. Beliefs like these have profoundly affected and shaped legal frameworks and the layman’s attitude to gambling.
In Islam, gambling is viewed as haram. This is the reason you will find Muslim leaders of note regularly encouraging the masses to stay away from it. Creating a moral stigma around gambling keeps people from wagering.
It is considered a sin to be associated with any kind of gambling activity; hence, there is an incredible amount of pressure from society and religious leaders to abstain from it.
Legal Hurdles
Bangladesh’s legal guidelines are based on the principles of Islam and the country’s cultural ethos. The archaic Public Gambling Act of 1867 makes gambling in the country illegal, despite a few exceptions like online casinos. This strict law aims to criminalise both organising and participating in any kind of gambling activity.
Strict fines and probable imprisonment act as strong deterrents to gambling in Bangladesh. Only wagering on certain skill games is allowed.
These rigid laws operate within a legal framework that is attuned to social disapproval of gambling and stresses the fact that gambling is undesirable and best avoided. However, despite these laws, many areas, mainly urban areas, witness illegal gambling, with lotteries without sanction and underground betting cartels.
Despite its unlawfulness, sports betting, especially cricket betting, has surged in demand and popularity, making it accessible to the masses through online betting platforms. People interested in gambling can enjoy online gamblingon sites like Banglabet88, which offers a variety of bonuses.
Cultural and Traditional Values
Bangladeshis place great importance on the family’s reputation and honour. If an activity like gambling leads to huge losses or an all-consuming addiction, family members view it as damaging to their reputation and place in society. Thus, online gamblingand online casinosare viewed as culturally damaging.
Bangladesh also has a strong rural-urban divide. While rural people rarely engage in gambling, it is more prevalent in urban settings where residents have access to modernised, global influencers.
But it is to be kept in mind that in rural settings, traditional values hold sway, and gambling bears a heavy stigma. While discouraged, there exists a degree of variation in more urban areas like Chittagong and Dhaka, where gambling is under the sway of entertainment and media but provocative nonetheless. Anyone displaying addictive gambling behaviour is extremely rare to this day.
However, in the last few years, the internet has increased every nook and cranny of the country, and it has evolved the landscape of online gambling. This is by all means a grey area, and there are excellent websites like Banglabet88 operating from offshore addresses that allow Bangladeshis (particularly internet-savvy youth) to bet on various games, the most common being cricket and online casinos.
In sharp contrast to developed urban areas, rural areas are quite intolerant of gambling and condemn it outright. Traditional elders and religious leaders have the public’s ear, and they preach that gambling corrupts the soul. According to them, gambling devalues piety, responsibility, and modesty, thereby leading to spiritual and cultural ruin.
Factors of Economy
In Bangladesh, hardships and poverty are predominant. However, there are also people who want to break out of their financial conditions, and for them, gambling is a “get rich quick” scheme. This phenomenon is predominant in marginalised communities.
Nevertheless, this kind of behaviour is deemed irresponsible by most as it can lead to gambling addiction, spiritual “downfall,” and financial ruin.
Many countries in Asia have positioned themselves as gambling-friendly countries where sites like Bangladesh enjoy lavish participation. A large percentage of tourists visit these countries because of their gambling zones, which are licensed and taxed by the government.
However, unlike these countries, Bangladesh upholds a religious and cultural heritage and does not support betting in any form. Its political landscape prevents the development of legal gambling sectors. Consequently, any gambling activity, when done, is cloaked in utmost secrecy.
Despite the overwhelming religious and cultural factors affecting Bangladeshi betting, marginalised communities often fall victim to gambling addiction. Bangladesh is viewed as a developing country with significant poverty. In the face of this, it is easy for the youth to gamble in the hope of getting rich quickly. However, we must understand that the chances for this are extremely slim and, more often than not, lead to financial ruin.
Conclusion
Bangladesh’s confluence of religion, culture, and law creates an anti-gambling solid sentiment. The precepts of Islam, which consider gambling haram,are deeply rooted in legal and societal values. The cultural standards of this country have firm roots in family honour and respectability and look down on online gambling as a vice to be avoided at all costs.
While illegal gambling exists in a few places, offshore sports betting and online casinos remain an unexplored debate. However, Bangladeshi youth have shown massive interest as the number of registrants at such sites is growing by the day.
