Six men have been detained by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) for using online gambling applications like “Teen Patti Gold” to launder millions of taka to locations outside of Bangladesh.

The arrested individuals are identified as Jamilur Rashid, 31, Simon Hossain, 29, Md Ridwan Ahmed, 29, Md Rakibul Alam, 29, Md Muntakim Ahmed, 37, and Kayes Uddin Ahmed, 32.

All six of them were arrested on Sunday night from the Mohakhali and Uttara areas of the capital according to the RAB members at a media briefing in Karwan Bazar on Monday. Commander Khandaker Al Moin, a RAB spokesman said, “CEO of Ulka Games Limited, Jamilur Rashid was identified as the prime suspect of the money laundering.

Commander Khandaker Al Moin also said that The RAB Cyber Monitoring Team has stepped up its vigilance and efforts to bring those involved in online casinos to justice and previously the RAB arrested Selim Prodhan, the ringleader of many online casinos.

The money laundering links back to the story of Moonfrog Lab, a prominent ‘Teen Patti Gold’ app operator from India. The Ulka Games Limited founder and CEO Jamilur Rashid got involved with the company back in 2017 and was made company representative for Moonfrog in 2018.

Ulka Games received permission to develop games and did not receive permission to run online gambling or casinos from the government as gambling is considered illegal in the country. The company ignored the rules and started operating online casinos and selling chips.

Ulka Games also added other online gambling apps like ‘Rakhi’, ‘Andar Bahar’ and ‘Poker’ while operating the ‘Teen Patti Gold’ app. To lure in players, the company first gave free chips to users but after getting them addicted they started charging for the chips.

The company had almost 900,000 regular players and sold around Taka 3 million in chips every day, according to Commander Khandaker Al Moin.