Ads for online betting apps on government websites

Online betting advertisements

• Online betting is being promoted on 3,295 pages connected to 11 government websites

• Highest 1,439 betting pages are hosted on the website of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority

Domains of at least 11 government websites are being used to promote online betting. The ‘Dismislab’, an initiative of the Digitally Right to verify information, has found more than 3,000 web pages connected to these websites.

The pages are redirecting the clients to four betting websites mainly. The DIsmislab published a report in this regard titled “Bangladesh government websites riddled with thousands of betting pages” published on Monday. The report highlights how the government websites are being used to promote online betting and how the clients are being led to the betting websites.

All the government websites run under a domain named ‘gov.bd. A primary Google search within the ‘gov.bd’ domain, using keywords like ‘Casino’ and ‘Betting,’ along with a scrutiny of sitemaps of the websites found in search results, unveiled a staggering total of 3,295 betting pages across official websites of key government offices, educational institutions, and defense entities, the Dismislab report says.

“Implicated government websites include the Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA), Local Government Department, Public Library Directorate, Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, Ansar and Village Defence party, Bangladesh Electricity Development Board, and educational institutions like the Rajshahi Education Board, Narayanganj Women’s College, and Kishoreganj Government Women’s College. Two government-registered online news portals have also been found promoting online betting,” it added.

The research results have questioned the management of the government websites. The Dismislab informed the Bangladesh e-Government Computer Incident Response Team (BGD e-GOV CIRT) about the research results on 30 May.

Speaking regarding this, BGD e-GOV CIRT project director Mohammad Saiful Alam Khan told Prothom Alo, “The Dismislab lettered us in this regard. We told them financially integrated issues like online betting falls under the jurisdiction of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). They also can contact the criminal investigation department (CID) of the police."

BTRC secretary and spokesperson Nurul Hafiz said they don't know which of the government websites are affected. They will verify the issues addressed by the dismislab.

Although all sorts of betting is banned in Bangladesh, efforts are on to make online betting more available to common people, in particular through advertisements on Facebook. Besides, several other platforms, including television channels, OTT platforms and billboards, are being used to promote online betting. In addition to that, government websites are also being used for the same purpose.

The website of the BEZA has become the primary target for the promotion of online betting. The Dismislab has found 1,493 online betting web pages hosted in the main domain and seven sub-domain of the website of BEZA.

The Dismislab report says these betting web pages are hidden within the complex web of 32 sub-domains belonging to the BEZA website. Some of them are indexed by Google and can be found with a simple keyword search. However, to explore further, Dismislab examined the sitemaps of each sub-domain and found that seven of them had been compromised by betting promoters, in addition to the main site.

Whenever the clients click these pages, it takes them to one of the betting platforms. Websites of different other government agencies are also being used by the online betting promoters.

Sitemap analysis of the Dismislab reveals a staggering 358 such pages on the Local Government Department‘s website, 352 on the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation‘s, 288 on the Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Party’s site, 281 on the Directorate of Public Library’s, 167 on the Financial Management Academy‘s, and 149 on the Feni Zila Parishad‘s site.

Digital security expert Ashraful Haque said probably the promoters are running advertisements online betting apps without the knowledge of the admins of these websites.

He said miscreants could take complete control of the government websites in case of negligence of the employees involved in the security of these websites or any incompetence in the management.

*This reports appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu