Police bust football gambling network in Vietnam
HANOI - Police in football-mad
Vietnam said Wednesday they have arrested
three men running an illegal gambling syndicate
taking bets on top-flight European matches.
The trio were picked up in the capital on
October 7 after a lengthy surveillance operation.
The 24-year-old ringleader, Le Viet Anh, was an
unemployed university graduate. Two of his
partners were brothers, the interior ministry's
Cong An Nhan Dan (People's Police)
newspaper said.
Their biggest client, Nguyen Khanh Tung, was
also arrested.
The 23-year-old son of a wealthy state official, Tung often gambled up to 30
million dong (2,000 dollars) on a single day, it said.
The syndicate took bets via their mobile phones, or in person at the city's
dozens of sports cafes, on the English Premier League, Italy's Serie A, the
Spanish Primera Liga and the European Champions League.
Police said each day they would take between 35 and 55 million dong
(2,300-3,700 dollars) in bets from punters.
All four men have reportedly confessed to their crimes.
Despite being outlawed, football gambling is widespread in Vietnam. Low pay
and poor motivation often makes police an easy target for bribes from
underground bookmakers to look the other way.
In March, police were given cash rewards for arresting 140 football gamblers
in Ho Chi Minh City, including 53 people in a raid on a sports restaurant in the
Chinatown district of Cholon.
Gambling is no longer completely outlawed in Vietnam as it was in the 1970s
and 1980s when the communist authorities regarded it as an unacceptable
capitalist pursuit.
However, it remains tightly restricted, creating a lucrative industry for the
country's criminal underworld.
Vietnamese law only allows limited betting on the state-run lottery and at the
old colonial racecourse in Ho Chi Minh City, which was resurrected in the
early 1990s.
Punters are also allowed to have a flutter at a new greyhound stadium in the
southern coastal resort of Vung Tau.
Agence France Presse - October 23, 2002.
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