~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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[Year 2002]

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.