Nghe An: Fighting hard against gambling during World Cup season

Sophisticated tricks

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar from November 20 to December 18 is considered the biggest football festival on the planet. Not only fans are interested in this event, but it is also considered the "business" season for those who specialize in organizing gambling and participating in gambling in the form of football betting.

Currently, on social networking platforms and online football viewing websites, many subjects have openly organized football betting advertisements. Football betting lines are formed by professional gambling organization leaders, often criminals, "big brothers", connected with "bookmakers" managing betting websites such as: M88.com, Fun88.com, Bong88.com, fb88.com, sin88.com... These online betting websites often have servers located abroad to set up small branches for football betting organizations in cyberspace in Vietnam, with many forms of advertising, attractive public invitations in Vietnamese.

Screenshot of a football betting website. Photo: Tien Dong

D. - a famous football bettor in Vinh City shared that: Now, out of 10 people watching football, there are 5-6 people participating in betting. Without waiting for the World Cup or the European Football Championship Euro, normally, when entering the season of European countries such as the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A... bookmakers have been bustling to attract players to participate in betting. Because if the World Cup or Euro only lasts at most 1 month, the national championships must last nearly 1 year, this is the biggest source of income.

D. said that in the past, if you wanted to bet, you had to find an organizer (usually at a coffee shop), then write it down on the table, and if you won, you had to run to get the money…, but now you only need to operate on your phone for about 5 minutes to open an account and participate in betting. After successfully placing a bet, the money will be automatically deducted from your account, if you win, the money will be automatically transferred to the account you registered before, if you lose, the deposit will be lost.

Normally, bookmakers will offer many "bets" for gamblers to choose from such as: score; win - lose the whole match; corner kick; card; goal; loss, even bet on which team's net will shake first, which team will get the first throw-in or corner kick... Along with that are the odds of winning and losing given by bookmakers, if the bet has a high probability of winning, the bookmaker will offer a very low odds and vice versa. All of this is just for the purpose of giving gamblers many choices to put their money down.

The subjects were arrested in an inter-provincial football betting ring with bets of up to more than 10 billion VND. Photo: Tien Dong

Lieutenant Colonel Tran Duc Than - Head of the Criminal Police Department, Nghe An Provincial Police said: Betting is a concept that is no longer strange to many people, especially football betting is the act of using money or other assets to bet on predicting the score, win or lose, of an upcoming football match or an ongoing but not yet finished football match. Although it is an act strictly prohibited by law, there are still many people willing to bet on football matches, leading to the consequence of being subject to strict sanctions and being handled according to current legal regulations. More seriously, many players, because of the blood of winning and losing, have to sell their houses and assets to participate in betting.

Criminals who bet on football in cyberspace often have close relationships with each other and have many sophisticated tricks to deal with the authorities such as: Using smart mobile devices with internet connection to exchange information, commit crimes; taking advantage of loopholes in management, control of cyberspace, management of junk SIM cards, payment management to commit crimes; even using many different bank accounts to circulate money making it difficult for the authorities to trace...

Resolutely fight and handle

Carrying out a peak campaign to fight and suppress crime during the 2022 World Cup season. Units in the police force have organized the fight and destroyed many networks and individuals organizingfootball betting. Typically, in the early morning of November 28, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police successfully dismantled a gambling ring and gambling in the form of high-tech football betting organized by Luong Van Quan (born in 1994), owner of a coffee shop in Nghi An Commune (Vinh City). Taking advantage of the fact that the coffee shop had many customers coming to watch the World Cup, Quan solicited and then placed football betting bets with viewers. Quan downloaded and installed the Viva 88 application, then created a betting account and used 200 million VND to buy betting points from the bookmaker. Before the matches, Quan consulted betting odds on websites, then informed players and received betting odds. On average, each match, the subjects bet from 1 to 50 million VND.

At the scene, the police seized 7 mobile phones, 1 iPad, and 1 notebook recording information of football bettors. The police also froze 6 bank accounts of the subjects. Initially, it was proven and clarified that the amount of money the group used for betting was 200 million VND.

Three suspects Hoang Van Hiep, Vu Cong Ty and Dang Cong Dung with evidence in the case. Photo: Hong Ngoc

Or at around 8:00 p.m. on December 5, Dien Chau District Police presided over and coordinated with the Provincial Police Department's professional department to organize forces to simultaneously search 3 locations, arresting 3 subjects including: Vu Cong Ty (born in 1984), Hoang Van Hiep (born in 1994), both residing in Dien Ngoc commune and Dang Cong Dung (born in 1984), residing in Dien Chau town, for gambling through football betting through the website Vn88.com with an amount of tens of millions of dong.

Interrogating Nguyen Van Hieu, the leader of an inter-provincial football betting ring with bets of more than 10 billion VND. Photo: Tien Dong

Notably, recently on December 5, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police simultaneously deployed 8 working groups to successfully break up a high-tech gambling case in the form of large-scale inter-provincial football betting, initially arresting 8 subjects with a transaction amount of more than 10 billion VND. This group of subjects was led by Nguyen Van Hieu (born in 1994), residing in Dien Thanh Commune, Dien Chau District, assisting Hieu with 7 subordinate agents in Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces. The police force also searched the residences of the subjects in Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces, seized 1 car, 1 computer, 7 mobile phones, froze 5 bank accounts and many other related exhibits.

Lieutenant Colonel Tran Duc Than also said: The process of fighting and collecting evidence against online gambling and football betting crimes often encounters many difficulties because criminals use many sophisticated tricks to deal with authorities such as using junk SIM cards, smart mobile devices connected to the internet, taking advantage of loopholes in management and control of cyberspace to commit crimes.

Evidence of the subjects operating the football betting line was seized by the police. Photo: D.C.

Faced with the complicated developments of gambling crimes in the form of football betting, on November 25, 2022, the Prime Minister issued Official Dispatch 1123/CD-TTg on strengthening the prevention and fight against crimes and violations of the law related to football betting. It requires: The Ministry of Public Security to direct the police of units and localities to organize the fight against and destroy gangs, lines, and subjects involved in gambling and football betting activities, especially during the 2022 World Cup finals; step up the fight against crimes arising from football betting activities, such as "black credit", fraud, robbery, snatching, property theft, etc.

The Prime Minister also requested the Ministry of Information and Communications to strengthen propaganda work to raise people's awareness and not participate in gambling activities, especially football betting over the internet. Closely coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security to block gambling and betting websites and carry out professional work to proactively detect, fight and eradicate football betting hotspots and lines.

In particular, provinces and centrally-run cities must direct functional forces and organize strong attacks and suppression, strictly handle crimes and violations of the law related to football betting in the area; mobilize the combined strength of the political system in preventing and effectively combating football betting activities, ensuring security and order; propagate and mobilize people to raise vigilance and actively denounce football betting activities.