"Hot" gambling problem

(Baonghean.vn) The traditional Tet holiday has passed, life has returned for a new year. However, many social evils following Tet have not stopped, including gambling. Professional gambling dens gamble every night, every day, regardless of time. In the role of gamblers, we visited some gambling dens in Vinh City and some neighboring areas to identify the "thirst for money" and the dangers of gambling.

Go to the casino

With a tape recorder tied to my wrist and some money to play the role, Binh and I went to a large gambling den in Cua Ward.Male. Binh was a person with a bad past (now reformed), so when he arrived at the gambling den, several tough-looking young men standing outside the door easily let me in. I was held back, but Binh said "That's a family member", so I was let through. Entering the room on the first floor, there were about 30 gamblers gambling with each other on the dice game.

Large wads of money were thrown out into the middle of the mat after each announcement from the dealer. The sound in the gambling den was not very loud but the atmosphere was as tense as a guitar string. Looking at the piles of money that the gamblers were holding, I estimated that there were nearly a hundred million dong in total here. So, this was a fairly "big" gambling den. We sat down on the mat to approach the gamblers.

According to Mr. Binh, gambling in Vinh and many other places now rarely involves playing "phom" or "ta la" because the time to play is long, while participating in gambling makes people "thirsty", quick to win and quick to lose. Basically, the most popular is shaking the plate, because many people can participate. This game consists of 4 pieces of cardboard (usually Vinataba cigarette packs) cut into circles, a bowl, a plate and then the gambling begins. The dealer shakes the plate several times to shuffle the "positions" randomly, then whoever likes which door puts money on that door.

For example, bet on odd (3 heads up, 1 face up) or even (2 heads up, 2 faces up). After the dealer calls "the scale", the villagers put more money in, then turn the bowl over to see the result. At that time, it was really bustling because some people cried, some laughed, money was in chaos. This is also the time when fights often happened because of anger, because of losing money. In addition, there is another gambling game called 3 cards, using 3 cards (remove all the cards with human figures) to see who has more points to win. Or play "lieng", also using 3 cards to compare points but can "bet" each other, whoever has less points but dares to "bet" their high score wins... It's that simple, but it has caused countless families to be broken, fall into debt, then go to jail, and split up!...

At the gambling den we were in, there were women, old and young, all of them were staring at every handshake of the dealer. Suddenly a camera flash went off, the gamblers who were crowding around quickly hid in a corner, and started looking for someone to take pictures. It turned out that Binh was using his cell phone to secretly take pictures but was discovered. Immediately, the gamblers gathered around Binh and me. Several people pointed at me: "This guy is very suspicious, he could be a journalist!". Immediately, I was pushed out onto the street and Binh was held back to delete the photos on his phone. The security guards outside glared at me. Quickly, I called a car to go straight home, Binh was temporarily held back, trying to tell me "You go home first, I'll find a way to go back later". What a close call!

Gambling in many ways

In 2012, Nghe An continues to urge and inspect the implementation of the 2012 plan in all areas, not allowing the idea of ​​Tet joy and spring travel to last long, affecting the implementation of political tasks among cadres, party members and people. The province directs to continue to manage festivals well; perform well the tasks of ensuring social security, developing science and technology, ensuring the environment; continue to step up the attack and suppression of all types of crimes... These are the key and important tasks in February 2012 that Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Ho Duc Phoc thoroughly conveyed to the sectors and localities at the meeting of the Provincial People's Committee.

However, during Tet, in localities in the province, gambling still exists in many forms. In addition to the "traditional" forms of gambling at home such as dice, card games, etc., gambling is also hidden under the red and black games that appear everywhere at the New Year's festivals. Therefore, from the first day of the new year, the authorities have had to take action to eradicate social evils that are creeping everywhere, ruining Tet and the Spring days.

Dien Chau District Police (Nghe An) has just urgently arrested Tran Van Nho (26 years old), Vu Duy The (30 years old) and Tran Van Tao (33 years old) in Dien Ngoc Commune to investigate the acts of disturbing public order and destroying citizens' property. Previously, on January 24 (the 2nd day of Tet), two groups of young men from Dien Thanh Commune and Dien Ngoc Commune organized gambling at Tran Van Tao's private house. During the gambling, a conflict arose between them. After arguing and fighting, the group of young men from Dien Thanh Village was chased and beaten, forced to abandon 2 motorbikes to escape. The group of young men from Dien Ngoc Commune burned down 2 motorbikes.

Before that, the Vinh City People's Procuracy also indicted four defendants Nguyen Anh Vu, Nguyen Thi Hoa, Ho Viet Vinh, and Phan Huy De for gambling in Hung Binh Ward at the end of 2011. The Vinh City Police's working group caught these subjects red-handed and seized 10 million VND on the spot. The four subjects were each fined 3 million VND and sentenced to 9 months in prison. The list of gambling cases is still long and the work of the authorities is still very heavy.

Right from the morning of the first day of Tet, many alleys in Vinh City as well as in the countryside were "bustling" with gambling tables. From sidewalk gambling to "aristocratic" gambling with private rooms with stakes up to hundreds of millions of dong. With a bowl, a plate and four dice cut from cigarette wrappers, the house only needed 5 minutes to gather dozens of people. At first, the betting money was only 5,000-10,000 dong, which was considered fun. Later, "thirst", the betting money gradually increased, the lowest bet was 50,000 dong. On the street, there was xoc dia, bau cua, indoors there was chan, ta la, ba cay... Even in offices, the bored civil servants on duty during Tet called each other to make a table.

But these small gambling dens often encounter "risks". If they cause too much disorder, people will call the police, run around in panic, and throw dishes everywhere. Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh, who lives in Ben Thuy, said: "A few years ago, every Tet, the area near my house "sprouted up" a lot of casinos, all kinds of crowded places. Every now and then, I saw a gambling den running around. Many guys were holding their heads, blood flowing. It turned out that the gangsters saw the gambling dens as big so they took out knives to rob, some gamblers even used grenades. But in the past 1-2 years, this gambling game has ended, sometimes only in alleys." Many gambling dens are more discreet, pulling all the gamblers into their homes. The entrance fee is about 50,000-200,000 VND, whoever "wins" a lot will have to give the house owner a cut.

It shows that gambling during Tet is very hot and needs the intervention of authorities.

Tran Hai