Vietnamese authorities are sounding the alarm over the scope of illegal gambling in the country. At a conference in Hanoi on Friday, the Ministry of Public Security issued a report recapping the illegal wagering that went on during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, as well as the authorities’ efforts to combat this activity.
Vietnamese police blocked 1,450 gambling websites during their anti-betting Cup combat, which they said had managed to cut the scale of gambling by 50% compared with other prominent football tournaments. Among the authorities’ bigger scalps were betting rings linked to M88.com, which authorities described as the top betting site dealing with Vietnamese punters. But despite these efforts, bettors somehow managed to wager ‘tens of millions of US dollars per day’ during this summer’s escapades in Brazil.
Police also targeted 14 main banks in their bid to stamp out illegal betting but Lieutenant General Tran Trong Luong of the General Department for Crime Prevention and Control said many banks had refused to share information in the absence of formal criminal charges. In the past 12 months, banks provided police with the details of just 10 suspected online gambling cases, which Luong told Tuoi Tre News was “too small” a figure.
Luong said the authorities had identified over 2.5m instances of bettors logging on to illegal betting sites from domestic IP addresses. Social Crime Investigation Department head Maj. General Ho Si Tien related the case of a Ho Chi Minh City-based ring that set up a website for football bettors. The Pro186.com site boasted a clientele of nearly 15k gamblers who wagered with a proprietary virtual currency the site dubbed ‘P.coins’ although the site’s operators would settle wagers up in person later on via cold hard cash.
Vietnam’s government has toyed with the idea of allowing some form of limited sports betting by its citizenry, similar to the sports lottery services available in other Asian countries, but these efforts have repeatedly stalled in the legislature.
