Illegal gambling operation, hit in Vietnam

The authorities have dismantled two illegal gambling rings in Vietnam and detained over 30 people related to them.

Vietnam.- The Vietnamese authorities discovered two online gambling rings and detained 30 people for its operation. They contained 113 bookmakers which had accepted bets worth over €76 million.

The police identified the main leader of the illegal gambling operation, a 29 years-old Vietnamese man. His gang had been operated from a house in Thai Binh Province, the police found out.

Legalisation efforts

In 2018, sports betting regulations were on the table for Vietnamese lawmakers.

Maxfield Brown, manager business intelligence with Ho Chi Minh-based consultancy, Dezan, Shira and Associates, said to regional newspaper AGBrief it marked an “important step towards opening the industry up to foreign investment and increasing state revenues.”

“Legislation surrounding gambling in Vietnam is still in the early stages of the legislative process,” Brown told AGBrief in a September email. “Vietnam has provided clarification to date on horse racing, greyhound racing, international football, and physical casinos,” he said.

So far, urban centres, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang and the surrounding provinces are targets for investment. “Investors in these locations benefit from higher levels of income among residents and also attract higher net worth tourists,” he said.

“Investors will benefit from rising wages and steady increases in gambling spending that is estimated to be growing by around 12 per cent annually.

“The underground gambling market in big cities and tourist destinations will take a big hit as large investors displace smaller-scale underground operations,” he concluded.

Online betting remains under the illegal gambling tag in Vietnam, but that could soon change, should lawmakers decide so.