70 days of tracking 110 scratch cards to uncover the Phan Van Vinh case.

The first-instance trial of former Lieutenant General and former Director General of the Police Department Phan Van Vinh, along with 91 other defendants involved in a multi-trillion-dong online gambling ring, concluded in November. This is the largest online gambling case ever busted in Vietnam, involving the protection of two police generals; however, the initial clue stemmed from a 55 million dong fraud case targeting a young man in his 20s living in Quang Tri.

One day in mid-May 2017, Ms. Vo Minh Phuong (Viet Tri City, Phu Tho Province) received a Facebook message from an aunt named "Hang Nhu" who lived in Hanoi and was traveling abroad. The aunt said she was about to return to Vietnam and asked Phuong to buy 110 scratch cards, each worth 500,000 VND, to top up her account.

"Auntie" also asked for her personal information and bank account number to transfer money. A short while later, via Facebook message, she received a photo of a money transfer receipt from a US bank in Vietnam. Trusting her, on May 16, 2017, Ms. Phuong scratched off and sent the codes for all 110 cards.

Phuong didn't know the person contacting her was an imposter. Through relatives, she later learned that her uncle's social media account had been hacked. Phuong reported the incident to the Phu Tho Police.

According to Mr. Le Xuan Loc (Head of the Department of Prosecution, Investigation and Trial Supervision of the Phu Tho Provincial People's Procuracy), when handling the case, the Procuracy and the police determined that this was a form of fraud with familiar tactics, yet many people still remained unaware.

When tracking down the person who stole 110 scratch cards, investigators followed up on the limited information they had: a name, a phone number, and the name of a company: Vietnam Digital Telecommunications and Entertainment Joint Stock Company (GTS).

After 70 days of investigation, traveling to Hue, Quang Binh, and Quang Tri, authorities found the culprit to be Le Van Huy (21 years old, from Quang Tri). At that time, the Phu Tho prosecuting authorities also thought it was just a small-scale fraud case.

In August 2017, Huy was charged with two crimes:Using the internet to commit acts of property theft and gambling.Arrested on July 26, 2017, Huy quickly confessed to his actions, stating that after stealing 110 scratch cards, he used them to gamble on the Rikvip/Tip.Club gaming platform and also gave some to his friends. They all lost everything.

Based on Huy's testimony, the online gambling ring worth tens of trillions of dong was uncovered. Mr. Loc recounted that verification of GTS's tax declarations revealed that from January to April 2017, despite not being a prominent company, its revenue reached over 2,000 billion dong. This large sum led the Phu Tho prosecuting authorities to suspect GTS of engaging in illegal invoice trading and money laundering...

During the investigation of GTS, authorities discovered that the company was linked to the Rikvip/Tip.Club game. This was a popular online card game at the time, advertised openly. Many people "saw ads in their faces" as soon as they went on social media.

The game's virtual currency is topped up using only scratch cards from major telecommunications providers, and virtual currency exchanges are also conducted through many reputable payment units. The game's operation is orderly and transparent. However, the Phu Tho prosecuting authorities are still concerned that, when compared with current regulations, this game shows sufficient signs of online gambling activity.

"Depositing money to buy virtual currency is common in all games, but then exchanging virtual currency for real money is a violation of the law. The law stipulates that virtual items can only be used within the game and cannot be exchanged for real money," Mr. Loc explained.

Why was this game allowed to operate so extensively despite its violations? Upon further investigation, authorities discovered that the operating entity was CNC Company, chaired by Nguyen Van Duong.

Upon arriving here, the Phú Thọ prosecuting officials were even more surprised to learn that CNC is a police-affiliated company with an office at 10 Hồ Giám Street (Hanoi) - the headquarters of the General Department of Police. Furthermore, the Rikvip/Tip.Club online gambling platform has never been licensed to operate by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

According to the prosecuting authorities, the online gambling portal was established by CNC and its partner VTC Online in mid-2015, setting up 25 first-level agents and nearly 6,000 second-level agents in 24 provinces and cities. The total illicit revenue of the network until its dismantling at the end of 2017 amounted to more than 10,000 billion VND.

43 million accounts deposited virtual currency into the Rikvip/TipClub gaming portal. Notably, this gambling ring had the "backing" of two former Directors General of the Police Department and the Director of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Department.

At the conclusion of the first phase of the trial on the afternoon of November 30th, among the 92 defendants, Huy received an 18-month prison sentence, Duong was sentenced to 10 years, former Director General Phan Van Vinh received a 9-year sentence, and former Director of the Chemical Department received a 10-year sentence.

According to a recommendation from the Phu Tho Provincial People's Court, thousands of people involved will continue to be investigated in the second phase.