More than 9,500 billion VND poured into gambling ring related to former director of C50

On the morning of March 17, the Ministry of Public Security announced the initial investigation results related to the case of "Using the Internet to commit acts of property appropriation, organizing gambling, gambling, illegal purchase and sale of invoices and money laundering occurring in Phu Tho and a number of provinces and cities".

As of March 14, cThe security investigation agency has initiated proceedings.83 defendants, including: 41 people for organizing gambling, 38 people for gambling, 4 defendants for illegally buying and selling invoices, 2 defendants for money laundering and one defendant for using the Internet to commit property appropriation.

Nguyen Van Duong (Chairman of the Board of Directors of High-Tech Security Development Investment Company - CNC) and Phan Sao Nam (39 years old, former Chairman of the Board of Directors, Director of VTC Online Media Joint Stock Company - VTC online) were identified as the masterminds.

The investigation agency is temporarily detaining 31 defendants, prohibiting 42 people from leaving their place of residence, granting bail to 2 defendants and searching for 8 people.

9,580 billion VND gambling money through online payment gateway

Initial investigation results show that the amount of money involved in gambling is through two main channels: payment gateways (both legal and illegal) and the agent system. The total amount of gambling deposited through payment gateways is 9,583 billion VND (342 billion VND/month). Of which, money from telecommunication cards and game cards is 9,296 billion VND, accounting for 97%; money from banks is 168 billion VND, accounting for 1.75%.

Money used for gambling through agents is transacted directly in cash or by bank transfer, initially determined to be about 5,630 billion VND.

The amount of 9,583 billion VND collected through payment gateways will be divided among telecommunications enterprises, payment intermediary service providers, game card issuers, organizing groups (Duong, Nam, Trung, including operating costs and a small portion accounted for by legal entities CNC, VTC online, Nam Viet) and paid to gamblers.

Authorities estimate that telecommunications enterprises receive about 1,400 billion VND (equivalent to 16% of the total value of telecommunications cards); payment intermediary enterprises receive about 258.4 billion VND (GTS alone receives about 217.8 billion VND); Nguyen Van Duong's group receives about 1,600 billion VND; Phan Sao Nam and Hoang Thanh Trung's groups receive about 1,850 billion VND; 2,645 billion VND is paid as rewards to gamblers.

After taking possession, the gambling group used many different tricks to legalize the money, such as investing in projects, contributing capital to businesses, buying real estate, making savings deposits, converting into gold, foreign currency, transferring abroad (Phan Sao Nam deposited 3.5 million USD at the Bank of Singapore)...

The investigation agency is verifying the amount of money each party is entitled to in order to recover it according to the provisions of the law. The authorities have seized, frozen, and sealed total assets worth more than VND 1,238 billion (including VND 1,046.2 billion in cash, 20 apartments worth VND 192.6 billion) and 12 cars (not yet valued)...

How to make money from card games

According to the Ministry of Public Security, Rikvip card game started operating on April 18, 2015, including 42 games simulating various forms of gambling, operating illegally through the websites rikvip.com, rikvip.vn; since August 2016, it has changed its name to Tip.club and is available in the form of applications for phones and computers.

To participate, gamblers create an account and deposit money to buy virtual points in the game, called RIK, through telecommunication card top-up, game card top-up, top-up from bank account or buy directly through the agent system.

After winning or losing, gamblers can convert RIK into money, through selling to agents or valuable items such as telecommunication card codes, game card codes, phone account top-ups, through intermediary payment gateways.

In order for gamblers to deposit money to gamble, this group organized a network through legal entities they established to cooperate with intermediary payment gateways so that players could use telecommunications scratch cards and game cards to deposit money into card games (commonly called "card scratching")...

Duong and Nam also set up a multi-level agency system, including 25 level 1 agents and 5,852 level 2 agents, nationwide for gamblers to deposit and withdraw money to gamble; transactions were made in cash or through banks.

With a nationwide network, the agent system has contributed greatly to attracting gamblers and is a large transaction channel (level 1 agents have the largest total transaction volume of over 1,700 billion VND).

Thanks to a payment system that helps gamblers easily deposit and withdraw money to gamble, combined with massive online advertising, Rikvip/Tip.club has quickly attracted a large number of players, becoming the largest disguised gambling game in scale and revenue in Vietnam.

According to the investigation results, from April 18, 2015 to August 29, 2017, there were nearly 43 million real player accounts on the Rikvip/Tip.club system (if on average a gambler has 3 accounts, the total number is equivalent to over 14 million gamblers).

In May 2017, from a complaint from a woman who was scammed and had 55 million VND in phone cards stolen online, Phu Tho Provincial Police investigated and discovered an online gambling ring worth thousands of billions of VND.

Two months later, the Investigation Security Agency, Phu Tho Provincial Police initiated a case of "using the internet to appropriate property, organizing gambling, illegally buying and selling invoices and money laundering". Dozens of people were successively prosecuted and arrested, including Phan Sao Nam and Nguyen Van Duong, and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former Director of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Department C50, Ministry of Public Security.