Rikvip card game cleans out players' pockets, while agents make a lot of money

92 people in the case of an online gambling ring worth tens of thousands of billions of dong have just received the first instance verdict with penalties ranging from 40 million dong to 10 years in prison for six crimes. Of these, 60 defendants were found guilty.Gambling organizationandGamble.

According to the first instance verdict of the People's Court of Phu Tho province on November 30, the trio Nguyen Van Duong (former chairman of CNC company), Hoang Thanh Trung (former director of Nam Viet company), Phan Sao Nam (former chairman of VTC online company) established and operated a gambling line from April 19, 2015 with card game portals Rikvip/Tipclub, Zon/Pen, 23Zdo... As of August 29, 2017 (when the system was shut down), nearly 43 million game accounts had been registered.

Authorities believe that the total amount of money deposited into the Rikvip, 23Zdo, and Zon/Pen card game systems operated by Duong and his accomplices is nearly VND10,000 billion. This figure is incomplete because there is no data from June 24, 2017 to the end date of August 29, 2018.

The gambler with the most money to play - nearly 400 billion VND per year

The case file as well as the investigation in court showed that Nguyen Quoc Tuan (former deputy technical director of the CNC company's payment center) in addition to helping Nguyen Van Duong operate the line also participated in gambling many times.

For more than a year, from mid-2016 to August 2017, the total amount of money Tuan "burned" in the online gambling den that he himself participated in operating amounted to more than 360 billion VND. On August 8, 2016 alone, he participated in more than 90 online gambling sessions using the Sic Bo format. Of these, 33 sessions had bets of 60 million Rik (about 50 million VND). The highest betting session and the reward that this gambler received was 380 million Rik (about 320 million VND). Tuan became the gambler with the largest amount of money among the 43 people brought to trial in phase one.

Hoang Van Duy (28 years old, from Bac Giang) also poured more than 20 billion VND into the online gambling den in about a year. On August 8-9, 2016, Duy participated in many sessions, in which the highest bet was paid 41 million Rik (about 34 million VND).

In the first instance trial, 43 gamblers all claimed to have lost while playing. They had some common patterns, such as initially seeing the card game advertised publicly, they were curious and registered for an account. The initial purpose of playing was for entertainment, at first they often won so they were greedy, then when they lost they wanted to recover and had to sell their house, property, and borrow money.

Pham Quang Thanh (30 years old, Da Nang) is an example. Thanh started playing from early June 2016 until mid-2017 when he stopped, through an account with the impressive name bannhachoirik (meaning: sell house to play Rik).

Thanh bought and sold Rik with many other agents, the total amount of money was up to 2.6 billion VND. On August 8, 2016 alone, Thanh participated in 70 online gambling sessions using the form of Sic Bo, in which the highest bet was over 100 million VND.

Hearing Thanh's testimony, the judge asked if he had sold his house to gamble or why he named it that way? Thanh said he had only sold his car for nearly two billion VND to invest in gambling, and had not sold or mortgaged his house. Thanh admitted that he had lost more than three billion VND during the entire gambling process.

After many questions about his family background, the judge also said that Thanh was lucky that his wife had not abandoned him because many other defendants had lost everything and their families were broken.

Pham Quang Minh from Bac Giang is the gambler with the most serious consequences. Minh used to have stable finances and a family life that many people dream of, but now it is a thing of the past. Standing before the wooden platform, Minh said he regretted not knowing how to appreciate his previous life.

Become an agent and earn 5 billion VND in two years

According to the verdict, the "octopus tentacles" of card games that reached 43 million gambling accounts were 25 first-level agents and nearly 6,000 second-level agents. The 18 former first-level agents and six defendants who were former second-level agents brought to trial all stated that the procedures and criteria to become intermediaries in the gambling ring were very simple: an account on the card game portal, a Facebook account, and many bank accounts in anyone's name.

Without needing capital investment or much human resources, these agents can still connect with millions of gamblers across 24 provinces and cities, bringing in huge income.

Vu Van Dung (29 years old, from Bac Ninh, living in Ho Chi Minh City) is an example. Being asked by Hoang Thanh Trung and told to operate with peace of mind because "there is a big force behind him", Dung lured people to buy Rik to gamble. In 2015-2017, Dung opened more than 1,000 second-level agents, achieving sales that far exceeded 24 other agents with more than 500 transactions, worth nearly 4,000 billion VND.

By the time the system collapsed, Dung had benefited from the card game portals by more than 5 billion VND. To serve the purchase and sale of Rik, Zdo, Zon, Dung opened 14 accounts at different banks, and borrowed nearly 20 accounts from relatives and acquaintances.

According to the verdict, after 27 months of operation, the line collected nearly 10,000 billion VND. After deducting investment and operating costs, the line received 4,700 billion VND. Of which, defendant Phan Sao Nam received nearly 1,500 billion VND, Nguyen Van Duong pocketed more than 1,650 billion VND, and the group of Phan Anh Tuan, Hoang Thanh Trung and Le Van Kien (currently on the run) received more than 1,570 billion VND.

The verdict also determined that when he received a share of the money from the crime of organizing gambling, Duong laundered the money through private companies to legalize it. Currently, the total amount of money recovered by Duong is more than 240 billion VND. Duong still has to pay back more than 1,000 billion VND.

Not only the main members of the network, many intermediary units and network operators that help pay for gambling games also receive thousands of billions of dong.

"Bitter fruit" when gambling

The verdict shows that whether gamblers or organizers and operators of gambling games, victims or beneficiaries of illegal profits, they all have one thing in common: They must be punished for violating the law.

For organizing the Nam gambling ring, Duong received sentences of 5 and 10 years respectively. Former Director General of the General Police Department Phan Van Vinh and former Director of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department Nguyen Thanh Hoa were also sentenced to 9 and 10 years in prison for protecting them. Those who helped operate the gambling ring and helped Duong and Nam launder money were also fined hundreds of millions of dong or imprisoned. 60 gamblers and agents were also fined or imprisoned.

According to the verdict, on August 8-9, 2016 alone, there were more than 500 player accounts that showed signs of committing a crime.Gamble. Due to the limited time of investigation, in this case, the criminal prosecution agencies of Phu Tho province have only prosecuted 105 defendants, of which 12 are absconding, the wanted list has not been found yet, one person has a serious illness so they are separated, when the conditions are met, they will be processed later. As a result, 92 people had to appear in court. Other cases with sufficient signs of crime will be considered and processed in the second phase of the case.

Phu Tho Provincial Police have identified and taken statements from a number of people who participated as level 2 agents and gambled on the Rikvip/Tip.Cub, 23Zdo, and Zon/Pen card game systems. However, specific data on gambling and Rik trading behavior has not been determined yet. Authorities will continue to investigate these people.