Lost billions from playing fish shooting game

(Baonghean) - Although it has not been around for long, fish shooting game - an electronic game - is currently showing signs of transforming into a form of gambling for money.

Virtual fish, real money

Introduced to Vietnam around the beginning of 2015, the fish shooting game was initially known as an entertainment game. The gameplay is quite simple, the player just holds the lever to adjust the gun direction and press the shoot button. All fish shooting machines count bullet points, that is, for each bullet fired, if the fish "dies", the equivalent number of bullets will be collected.

Each type of fish corresponds to a certain score: normal fish, small fish from 2 - 10 bullet points; big fish like stingray 20 bullet points; shark is 30 bullet points; pink mermaid 2 - 10 points... Shoot as many fish as possible, the score achieved will be converted into coins to continue playing.

Fish shooting game screen. Photo: Internet

The rules of the game are like that, but later on, the fish shooting game is not just for entertainment but has transformed into an illegal form of gambling, when the player's score is converted into money. We went with Mr. NTC - a "master" of fish shooting game to learn about this disguised gambling method at a location in Vinh City. Even though it was noon, this amusement park was still very busy, all 6 fish shooting machines were full of players.

It is known that the rule here is that when players buy tokens (denomination 4,000 VND/token) to play, even if they win, they cannot convert them into money at the counter. However, there is a person who specializes in buying tokens from winners and selling them back to losers so that they can continue playing.

We wondered, with the amount of money spent on buying tokens being only a few thousand dong, is it true that many “thirsty gamblers” have lost billions? Mr. NTC said: “It looks like that, but here, people have lost billions, and tens of millions, hundreds of millions are a daily occurrence. At first, everyone was uncomfortable with this noisy space, but the more they played, the more addicted they became. Every day they had to “work” for a few hours, “having fun and getting rewards” who wouldn’t want it. Moreover, playing here is safe because if the police come to check and don’t see you exchanging directly, they can’t catch you.”

Fish shooting game at an entertainment spot in Vinh City attracts many participants. Photo: Thao Anh

It is worrying that this type of "reward-based entertainment" has now appeared in many villages in the province such as Dien Chau (in Dien Truong and Dien Yen communes), Quynh Luu (in Quynh Thang commune)... "Jumping headfirst" into fish shooting games and then "losing badly" and having to pay off debts, many consequences such as theft, robbery, loan sharking... have occurred.

In Nghe An, although no serious incidents have been recorded, there has been a lot of anger related to the fish shooting game. Nguyen Van L, a resident of Dien Chau, expressed his anger: "Many thefts and robberies that have occurred in the area also stemmed from the fish shooting game. Many children even dropped out of school, stole family property and pawned it to play the game."

Difficult to handle

Obviously, the fishing game in many places in the province has been transformed into a disguised form of gambling. So, where is the shadow of the authorities in the face of this reality? It is known that the reason why it is difficult to handle this form of gambling is due to many different reasons.

The first reason to mention is profit. In fact, businesses that absolutely comply with the law such as ensuring security and order conditions and some other regulations as prescribed have no players. On the contrary, if the business owner "turns a blind eye", ignores the regulations, even organizes gambling, then the players will come in large numbers, they will gain large profits.

Besides, currently, at this type of business establishments, the exchange of points is organized in many different places and forms, so it is very difficult to detect and handle illegal gambling through the exchange of coins and points into cash and vice versa between the machine owner and the player.

Lieutenant Colonel Ngo Sy Chien - Head of the Provincial Police Special Forces Team said: During the inspection, if the police force catches the act of exchanging tokens for cash, then it can be handled. However, the exchange between players cannot be handled because there are no clear regulations. Therefore, up to now, the provincial police force has only been able to repel very few cases of disguised gambling through this game, typically at Muong Thanh Dien Chau Hotel and 2 locations in Vinh City in 2016.

On the other hand, in cases where the person whose name is on the business registration certificate is in another locality or does not directly manage but hires someone to manage and operate the gambling organization, or even where there are points where ringleaders take advantage of the entertainment center to organize gambling, the authorities can only handle the manager and the gamblers.

Thao Anh