Vietnam to expand legal sports betting options

Vietnam’s National Assembly has expanded its legal sports betting market to include a wider variety of wager-worthy sports.

Last week theNational Assembly voted 457-1 in favor of the new Law on Sports and Physical Training. The law, which is set to take effect on January 1, 2019, includes a provision covering legal sports wagering.

Betting on soccer matches or most forms of sports betting have been banned by decades by the coumunist leadership, thus pushing bettors to place their bets via international websites.

The new law will reportedly expand the variety of sports on which Vietnamese can wager, but in typically opaque fashion, the government said it wouldn’t announce the official list of sports until an unspecified later date.

Fact: bettors will be limited to a daily maximum wagering total of only VND1m (US$44) with any single betting operator.

The latest move to legalize betting is meant to prevent money from flowing out of the country. The illegal betting market in Vietnam is estimated to be worth billions of dollars each year. The police last year discovered several illicit soccer-betting rings and online gambling worth more than $300 million.

However, the new law will not come into effect until next year.

Since April, locals have been allowed to bet on soccer matches that are on a list announced by the sports authority. This includes the World Cup, Asian Games, Southeast Asian Games and matches without Vietnamese team participation.