How website blocking works in the Maldives

This page explains the mechanism by which websites are restricted in the Maldives, and how much of that mechanism is actually documented in public. Where the record is thin, it says so rather than filling the gap.

Who does the blocking, and who asks for it

Two different bodies appear at the two ends of the process.

The Communications Authority of Maldives (CAM) is the body that implements restrictions. A 2024 assessment of civic space in the country describes the mechanism directly: websites are blocked by internet providers on the order of the Communications Authority of Maldives⁴. The block therefore sits at the level of the internet service providers, applied on instruction, rather than being carried out by CAM's own infrastructure.

The request, in the gambling cases reported so far, came from the police. In July 2024, Sun Online reported that the Maldives Police Service, through an Assistant Commissioner of Police, had lodged a request with CAM to block four betting sites after identifying their use within the country, and that one site had already been blocked¹. The Edition reported the same week that CAM's chief executive confirmed several such sites had been blocked on orders from the police, and that the number of blocked websites was not disclosed². Maldives Voice, reporting on the same development, quoted a police figure of three to four sites identified and blocked³.

Those three accounts agree on the mechanism and differ slightly on the count. That difference is itself informative: the number of blocked sites has not been published by either body.

The legal basis, and what is not published

This is where the public record becomes thin, and it should be described precisely.

CAM was created under the Communications Authority of Maldives Act, ratified on 8 December 2015, which the President's Office described as requiring the establishment of an institution to set guidelines for and administer all telecommunication and postal services in the Maldives, and to regulate infocommunications in the country⁵. The authority itself was established on 8 March 2016, replacing a communications authority that had sat within the Ministry of Home Affairs⁶. Separately, the Maldives Telecommunication Act was ratified on 10 December 2015 and covers the policies for telecommunications work and the issuing of telecommunications licences to service providers⁷.

Those official summaries describe a licensing and administration mandate. None of them sets out a power to order the blocking of specific websites, and KiraBet has not located a published provision, regulation or directive that states the legal basis on which gambling-related blocking orders are made. The news reports covering the 2024 blocking do not cite one either¹²³.

What the record shows about how blocks behave

One documented episode, unrelated to gambling, shows the mechanism operating and then reversing.

In December 2023 three websites were restricted, including two news websites that were inaccessible on local networks on 21 December 2023⁴. One was unblocked within 24 hours after a public backlash, and the other two were unblocked following orders from the police on 28 December 2023⁴. The Maldives Media Council was reported as saying that blocking those sites without complaints being lodged or investigations conducted through the Council was a threat to media freedom⁴.

Three features of the mechanism emerge from that account and the gambling reports together:

• Blocks are instructed, not automatic. A request from an authority precedes the restriction¹⁴.
• Blocks are reversible by the same route. They were lifted on instruction rather than by appeal⁴.
• Blocks are not announced in advance. In each case the restriction was reported after users found sites unreachable⁴.

The payments layer, which is separate

Website restriction is only one of the levers that has been used. A second operates on money rather than on access.

On 3 November 2020, Bank of Maldives announced restrictions on card usage for certain categories of website, including gambling sites, online trading platforms and cryptocurrency exchanges, saying the measure was intended to prevent its cards being used in illegal financial transactions and noting the strain that outflows from online trading placed on the dollar market⁸. The bank named specific sites and said it would monitor foreign card transactions and block exchanges on those websites without further notice⁸.

A payment restriction and a network restriction are different instruments with different operators, and a change in one says nothing about the other. The wider picture for payments from the Maldives is in why gambling payments are hard to recover.

Where the law itself now stands

Blocking has run ahead of legislation, and the legislative position remains unfinished.

In December 2025 The Edition reported that a bill had been introduced to criminalise gambling, following the President's announcement that a Penal Code amendment had been sent to Parliament⁹. On 4 January 2026 the same outlet reported the bill's contents: gambling would be treated as a fourth-degree offence with a standard punishment of one year, seven months and six days in prison, a minimum of four months and 24 days and a maximum of four years, with the definition of operating a gambling establishment explicitly including online gambling platforms and businesses¹⁰.

As at 12 September 2026, KiraBet has not been able to verify from an official source that the bill has been passed, ratified or brought into force. Its status is therefore unconfirmed, and this page should not be read as saying either that it has passed or that it has failed. The fuller account of the legal framework, including what can and cannot be verified about the position before any amendment, is at the Maldives gambling bill, and the contemporaneous report of the blocking itself is at the start of betting site blocking.

What this means for a reader

A blocked site is not a comment on whether that site is licensed elsewhere, whether it is safe, or whether its games are tested. Those are separate questions covered in our licensing guide and our guide to checking a gambling licence.

What a block does indicate is that an authority in the Maldives has asked for access to be restricted. Given the reported police involvement and the pending criminal legislation, the sensible reading is that the state's direction of travel on online gambling is toward restriction rather than regulation¹⁹¹⁰.

Promotion of gambling platforms through Telegram and social media has been cited in reporting as part of the reason for the increase in use²¹⁰. The risks that attach to those channels, including scams and irreversible payments, are set out in how online betting spread in the Maldives.

If gambling is causing harm to you or someone you know, free and confidential support is listed at gambling harm support in the Maldives.