10 men and women invited each other to a cajuput garden to gamble in Nghe An

Target group includes:Le Van Hung (born in 1985), Nguyen Thi Mai (born in 1969), Tran Duc Khanh (born in 1980), Pham Viet Hoa (born in 1982), Trinh Thi Lan (born in 1974) all reside in Dong Van commune, Dang Dinh Duong (born in 1980), Tran Viet Soi (born in 1986) reside in Nghia Phuc commune; Tran Van Binh (born in 1976), Nguyen Van Ky (born in 1991) reside in Ky Son commune (Tan Ky) and Hoang Thi Anh (born in 1985) reside in Vinh city.

Gambling participants in court. Photo: Phuong Hao

According to the indictment, at around 3:00 p.m. on July 24, 2018, Khanh took a bag containing gambling tools and invited Hung and Hoa to Mr. Tai's cajuput garden (Tan Dong hamlet, Dong Van commune) to gamble. A short while later, Anh, Mai, Lan and Ky (who went to buy eels at Mr. Tai's house) joined in.

Khanh spread a tarp in the middle of the cajuput garden, then took four playing card dice and a porcelain bowl and plate to gamble by shaking the dice. Hoa was the dealer, betting from 50,000 VND to 200,000 VND per game.

At about 4 pm, Soi, Duong, and Binh arrived and joined in gambling.

At around 4:45 p.m., while the group was gambling, they were caught red-handed by the Department of Social Order Crime Investigation (Nghe An Provincial Police) (Anh, Lan and Thuy were arrested, the other subjects quickly fled the scene).

The authorities drew up a record and seized 9,660,000 VND at the scene.

After the incident, realizing that their actions were illegal, from July 24 to August 2, 2018, Mai, Khanh, Duong, Binh, Hung, Soi and Ky turned themselves in to the investigation agency.

Among them, Soi, Binh, Hung, Ky and Hoa have all been sentenced to prison for gambling, in which Ky was also convicted of theft, and Hoa was also sentenced to an additional 24 months in prison for illegal possession of drugs. Regarding the sentence, Soi's criminal record has not yet been cleared.

Nguyen Thi Thuy was caught red-handed by Nghe An Provincial Police at the gambling scene. However, after verification, it was determined that she did not gamble, so she was released on July 24.

At the end of the trial, the panel sentenced Hoa to 36 months in prison; Soi, Ky, Binh each to 8 months in prison; Duong, Hung, Khanh to 29 months of suspended sentence; Mai to 9 months of non-custodial reform; and Anh and Lan each to 20 million VND.