THE Posts and Telecommunications Department is systematically monitoring and taking action to prevent gambling-related promotional and invitation SMS messages sent through the networks of licensed mobile operators.

According to a statement of the department, an SMS is classified as abnormal if the same message is sent from a single phone number to 60 recipients within one hour or to 1,000 recipients within 24 hours. Such messages are immediately blocked through the operators’ SMS firewall systems using an automatic blocking mechanism.

As a result of these enforcement measures, a total of 390,978 phone numbers suspected of sending gambling-related SMS messages had been permanently blocked as of 30 June 2026.

The department also urged the public to report phone numbers sending gambling-related SMS messages by emailing [email protected]. — TWA/MKKS