The parliament on Wednesday approved a plan to rewrite rules and unambiguously criminalize online gambling and betting.
Casinos and all types of gambling were banned in Iran after the 1979 revolution.
The majority in the chamber voted for the plan. Kazem Delkhosh, the spokesman of the Majlis Judiciary and Legal Commission, was among its backers.
"The current regulations have loopholes when it comes to betting and gambling on the internet. Online casinos have transferred huge amounts to foreign countries in recent years," ICANA quoted him as saying.
He said the new plan was developed following studies conducted by the Majlis Research Center in collaboration with the judiciary.
Details were not available.
Mousa Ghazanfaravadi, a government representative, voiced support for rewriting the rules. "The existing penalties and fines do not far enough," he said.
However, Jalil Rahimi Jahan Abadi, MP, was against the suggested penalties, saying that the gambling scourge has roots in the stuttering economy and cannot be resolved by putting people behind bars.
Hurling gamblers into prison “would only expand the number of inmates, which is against the country's policy."
There has been an increase in online gambling and betting in recent years. Experts say such cyber and financial crime is spreading fast and should raise the alarm, particularly in the cyber and payment sectors.
CBI Role
Relevant authorities, including the Central Bank of Iran, have been working on ways to effectively curb online gambling
The CBI recently said it had blocked 8,000 POS terminals connected to Iran's domestic payment network and was used in neighboring countries mostly by owners of online casinos.
The move came soon after the CBI enforced a decision in February 2020 to ban such e-payment systems overseas spurred by growing concern that access to POS payment devices was helping the huge outflow of money and disrupting the domestic financial market.
Reports say gambling website owners have stopped using POS terminals after the CBI measures. Instead they are using interbank transactions, via the Shetab Network, which is also being monitored by the central bank.
The CBI also said that it had blocked more than 20,000 bank cards used by illegal websites and sent details of 450,000 bank cards used in online gambling websites to the judiciary for legal action.
Payment gateways used by online casinos are illegal and usually rented using bank accounts and bank cards.
Owners of small businesses have often been cautioned about the malpractice as they are more likely to be swindled by online casino owners.
The CBI says it has created a smart platform to detect and automatically block unauthorized payment gateways of online betting websites.
