The Central Bank of Iran is working on several measures aimed at combating online betting and gambling websites.
"We have been monitoring online casinos to detect and block the common payment methods used by owners of websites. They mostly rely on payment applications, interbank transactions and illegal payment gateways among other electronic banking services" for their illicit trade, CBI deputy for Innovative Technologies, Mehran Mahramian, told a press conference.
Gambling is banned in Iran since 1979.
"The CBI has managed to block nearly all these channels, expect for the interbank transactions, which seems to be the only channel for receiving money from users," he said, and added that plans are underway to curb the usability of interbank transactions for online casinos.
Earlier reports said the CBI, banks and payment service providers are collaborating with other state bodies to ensure that the measures are effective enough.
Online betting and gambling ecosystem is vast and complicated, therefore the CBI needs a multi-aspect approach to the issue, such as reassessing regulations, closer interaction among the relevant authorities, developing an effective mechanism for automated detection of casinos, monitoring suspicious transactions and detecting financial channels, the central bank official said.
"Smart crawlers, developed by the CBI have considerably eased the detection of illegal gateways," he said. "More than 11,000 payment gateways and 20,000 bank accounts linked to gambling websites have been blocked."
Small Businesses Warned
Payment gateways used by online casinos are illegal and usually are rented using bank accounts and bank cards. Owners of small businesses have been warned about the malpractice as they are more likely to be deceived by online casinos.
It was announced earlier that more than 8,000 POS terminals, used in foreign countries, have been blocked by the CBI. The devices were connected to Iran's domestic payment network and used in neighboring countries mostly by owners of online casinos.
In monitoring suspicious transactions the CBI also managed to identify the owners of the gambling networks, whose names and monetary transactions were sent to the judiciary.
Press reports say there has been an increase in online gambling and betting in recent years. Experts warn that cyber and financial crime is spreading and is cause for alarm, particularly in the cyber and payment areas.
Shaparak, the body in charge of supervising the domestic payment network, recently said it has blocked 3,540 payment gateways used by online betting and gambling sites since the beginning of the current fiscal year in March.
The company’s “risk committee” is tasked with finding and plugging loopholes that can endanger the network, including techniques used for illegal gambling.
