KATHMANDU: The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has shut down more than 200,000 websites and apps involved in online betting and illegal financial transactions.
The government’s 100-point governance reform action plan included measures to control online betting and fraud. The 42nd point of the plan states that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology would shut down betting apps and related websites within 24 hours.
Following the decision, betting websites operating in Nepal at the time were blocked. However, many of them continued to resurface under new names. The authority said it has so far blocked 223,568 such apps and websites since the start of this year’s FIFA World Cup.
The NTA took swift action after the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers raised concerns that the use of online betting platforms could increase during the World Cup. The authority has also formed a dedicated task force to monitor and control such activities.
According to task force member and NTA Assistant Director Engineer Om Prakash Mahato, the Authority began blocking such websites after the World Cup started by coordinating with representatives of Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Mahato said the URLs of illegal betting websites are being blocked in cooperation with ISPs. He added that since it is not practical to search and block each website individually, the authority takes action against betting platforms and illegal financial transaction sites identified by authorized agencies.
He said blocking one website often creates a new challenge as similar platforms continue to emerge under different names. Therefore, the authority has been using a “threat intelligence tool” to identify new websites and has deployed additional human resources for monitoring.
The NTA has also stated that information about illegal websites can be submitted through its reporting link at github.com/NTA-OPM.
