Vietnam’s fresh crackdown on “social evils” has resulted in the arrest of six people involved in an online gambling ring reportedly worth $13 million.
The group operated a betting website that was “run by a firm in the Philippines,” according to AFP, quoting reports from Vietnamese police’s official newspaper, Cong An Nhan Dan.
According to the report, the website, which was launched in 2015, allowed gamblers to place bets using cryptocurrencies on football and tennis matches, online casino games and the lottery. Payments are made through bank transfers or ATMs.
“The total amount of transactions from 2015 until now reached more than $13 million,” the report stated.
Six people involved in the gambling ring were arrested, according to a police official. They face up to 10 years in jail under Vietnam’s criminal code.
“The suspects admitted… organizing and participating in online gambling,” the police report noted.
Gambling is largely illegal in Vietnam except for the state-run lottery and a few foreigners-only casinos, but that restriction could be eased if and when the country finally gets around to approving new legislation.
For years now, Vietnam has been tinkering with legislation that would allow legal betting on horse and dog races and international football matches. Under the current plan, qualified operators would be issued five-year licenses, after which the government will reassess what changes are required to improve the system.
Betting would be permitted via betting terminals – which can’t be located within 500m of each other, or near schools and playgrounds – and over the telephone, as well as the vaguely defined “other means of telecommunication,” which may or may not include online betting. The new draft, meanwhile, raises the minimum age for Vietnamese punters from 18 to 21 years, but relatives of jockeys, footballers, gambling operators and regulators would be prohibited from wagering.
Unfortunately, the new draft also maintains the original draft’s controversial VND1 million (US $45) maximum that each punter is allowed to wager on any single day on any one type of betting. Critics have dismissed this excessively tiny limit as a virtual guarantee that Vietnamese punters will continue to seek out less restrictive options via internationally licensed betting sites.
