Vietnam Police Bust $12.9-million Online Gambling Ring

Vietnamese police have arrested four men for allegedly running a football gambling ring.

They took in Nguyen Xuan Hung, 31, the suspected kingpin, Nguyen Huu Lam, 45, Duong Huu Nha, 24 and Cao Van Tuyen, 30. The gang had allegedly transacted bets worth VND300 billion ($12.9 million) in four months.

Hung bought a general account on b8ag.com, a multilingual website hosted on an overseas server, and operated it among gamblers in Ha Tinh and several other provinces from August.

At the end of December, the Ha Tinh police together with their counterparts in the northern province of Quang Binh and the southern provinces of Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau launched dozens of raids on Hung’s gambling establishments. They seised VND122 million ($5253) worth of cash and other items.

Vietnam legalised sports betting in 2017 and allows on a trial basis people aged over 21 with a monthly income of at least VND10 million ($432) to gamble in a casino on the southern Phu Quoc Island. But all other forms of gambling remain illegal.