Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have arrested six members of an online gambling ring from the city for laundering money through online gambling platforms masquerading as gaming sites.

The arrestees were identified as the ring leader Jamilur Rashid, CEO of Ulka Games, Saimon Hossain 29, Md Redwan Ahmed, 29, Md Rakibul Alam, 29, Md Muntakim Ahmed, 37 and Kayes Uddin Ahmed, 32.

Tipped off, a team of Rab arrested the ring members from the city’s Mohakhali and Uttara areas on Sunday night, said Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director legal and media wing of the Rab headquarters in a briefing at Karwanbazar media center on Monday.

During preliminary interrogation, the arrestees admitted to laundering huge amounts of money abroad through online gambling.

The Rab Commander said the ring leader of this gang is Jamilur Rashid, CEO of Ulka Games Ltd.

He was appointed as Bangladesh representative of an Indian gaming company named ‘Moon Frog Lab’ in 2018, on a salary of above Tk 1.5 crore. In 2019, he took approval for running a gaming development company by the name of Ulka Games Private Ltd to spread and legalize the popular online gambling app ‘Tin Patti Gold,’ of Moon Frog Lab in Bangladesh.

Tin Patti Gold is a mobile game controlled by Moon Frog Lab. It became mostly popular among youths and also among people of different class and profession as it can be played beside any work, said Khandaker Al Moin.

After registration the gamers were provided free chips at first and later they had to buy chips paying through mobile banking. Every day at least 50,000 crore chips were sold at Tk 46 to 65 and the players were provoked to buy more chips by defeating them using bot players or robot players, he said.

At present, 'Tin Patti Gold' has around 9 lakh regular gamers and is said to sell around Rs 30 lakh worth of chips every day. Khandaker Al Moin said that virtual chips are distributed in the field through distributors in exchange for money.

At present Ulka Games is known to have more than 80 crore rupees in four banking accounts. Also, in the last two years, they have paid Tk 29 crore to 'Moonfrog Lab' through the bank.

Jamilur Rashid passed HSC from a college in Dhaka and returned to the country after completing his graduation in economics from a foreign university in 2012.

Being addicted to mobile games since childhood, he started making mobile games from 2015.In 2017, he received a grant of 30 lakh rupees from the government for the production of two games called 'Heroes of 71' and 'Mukti Camp'.