Eliminate many high-tech gambling lines in Nghe An

Complex developments, sophisticated tricks

In Nghe An, according to investigators, gambling crimes in the area take many forms: traditional gambling including dice, three-card poker, etc.; gambling using the internet and telecommunications networks including lottery, football betting, or taking advantage of electronic games such as fish shooting machines to gamble.

For traditional gambling, the subjects often take advantage of remote areas, gather in the mountains and forests, where there is only one road, then arrange guards to set up camps to organize gambling. To ensure secrecy, even the gamblers do not know the gambling location but gather at a location requested by the leaders, then these subjects are transferred to the gambling den. On the other hand, due to the geographical location of Nghe An, which is adjacent to Thanh Hoa province, the border area is a mountainous area, so the subjects often take advantage of this factor so that when discovered, they can easily flee to another province. This poses many difficulties for the fight and eradication work.

In addition, with the explosion of the internet, recently, gambling crimes in the form of football betting have become very complicated and tend to increase. In this form, the ringleader provides gamblers with accounts, with just a smartphone connected to the internet, the subjects can gamble anytime, anywhere.

Some subjects in gambling rings have been eliminated by authorities. Photo: Archive

After nearly 1 year of investigation, at the end of May 2019, Thai Hoa Town Police successfully dismantled a "huge" online gambling ring, arrested more than 30 subjects, and clarified the gambling amount of about 20 billion VND. This is a large-scale online gambling ring nationwide, similar in nature to the Rikvip trillion gambling ring that Phu Tho Province Police had dismantled. Of which, Thai Hoa Town Police prosecuted 14 subjects, administratively handled more than 20 subjects, and clarified the gambling amount of about 20 billion VND.

Gamblers who participate in gambling through an online game application on their phones called “No hu” can exchange rewards from virtual money to real money and vice versa. To participate in the game, gamblers download the software to their computers or mobile phones, then create game accounts and deposit virtual money called “no” from their bank accounts or buy directly from agents. After winning or losing, gamblers can convert “no” into real money by selling it to agents. The police have arrested 3 level 2 agents in Thai Hoa Town, Nghia Dan, Vinh City and level 1 agent in Nghe An - Ha Tinh, Le Hong Thoa (born in 1989), residing in Quang Tien Ward, Thai Hoa Town.

In Nghia Dan district, the district police also "broke down" a high-tech gambling ring set up by Dau Thi Van (commonly known as Ot, born in 1993) and her husband Nguyen Van Thanh (also known as Thanh Che, born in 1992), both residing in Binh Thanh hamlet, Nghia Binh commune, Nghia Dan district, arresting 11 subjects and seizing many related evidences.

Evidence of the cases. Photo archive

Their modus operandi is that after the Northern lottery results are available, they pay the winnings or losses through bank accounts, transfer money via internet banking or e-wallet applications. The method of operation of this group is very sophisticated and cunning, the masterminds often do not reveal their identities, frequently change their phone numbers and contact methods. Accordingly, between 3:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. every day, when gamblers often come to write down lottery numbers, these subjects organize meals and drinks, then post pictures on Facebook to deceive the police. When strangers come to write down lottery numbers, they immediately refuse or only sell lottery tickets licensed by state agencies. The investigation agency also determined that from January 2019 to the time of arrest, Dau Thi Van and her accomplices had made money transfers with subjects in the gambling ring for an amount of 10.3 billion VND.

Not only these two lines, a series of "huge" gambling lines and locations have been eradicated by the Criminal Police Department and the Police of units and localities in the past time. Some major projects include Project 519B of the Quy Hop District Police, which successfully eradicated a gambling location using the form of shaking the dice at Pong Cave (Con Village, Chau Quang Commune, Quy Hop District); arrested 11 subjects gambling using the form of shaking the dice, confiscating more than 300 million VND. Project 119B of the Criminal Police Department, eradicated a gambling line using the form of online football betting, initially proving that the amount of money used for gambling was more than 196 billion VND... A series of large gambling lines uncovered in the past time is proof of the tireless efforts and fight of the Nghe An Police against gambling crimes.

According to statistics, from May to November 2019, Nghe An Police have fought and clarified 366 gambling cases, arrested more than 1,470 subjects, a decrease of 746 cases compared to the first 6 months of 2019. To achieve this result, the Criminal Police force across the province has made efforts to do a good job in basic professional work, prevent crimes, resolutely take action, hit and hit hard against gambling crimes and gambling evils, contributing to ensuring security and order in the area.

Resolute in prevention work

In reality, gambling crimes always exist in many different forms, not following a certain rule. Gamblers are also diverse in age, education level, social class; there is collusion between subjects inside and outside the province. The consequences of gambling crimes lead to many other social evils such as drugs, theft, robbery, murder...

The gambling was organized very sophisticatedly by the subjects to deceive the public and the authorities. In addition to constantly changing locations in the border areas between this district and other districts, this commune and other communes, the subjects also hired many subjects to act as lookouts outside and inside, and when they discovered the police, they would raise the alarm so that the gamblers could escape.

A high-tech gambling ring with a total value of tens of billions of dong was busted by Nghia Dan District Police. Photo: Minh Tam

Major Nguyen Thanh Hai - Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Department (Nghe An Provincial Police) said: In the past time, the unit has seriously implemented the direction of the leaders of the Ministry of Public Security, chaired and urged the police of units and localities to strengthen the fight against gambling crimes, not allowing gambling lines and locations to exist for a long time in the area, causing resentment among the people.

Accordingly, Nghe An Police has proactively advised the Provincial People's Committee, directed departments, branches and organizations to coordinate with the Police force, effectively implement social prevention measures, promote propaganda work, mobilize people to actively participate in preventing, detecting and denouncing crimes in general and gambling crimes in particular. To strengthen the fight against crimes and gambling violations, since the beginning of the year, the Criminal Police Department has advised the leaders of the Provincial Police to issue a plan to direct the Police of units and localities to focus on reviewing and making plans to resolutely combat crimes and violations of gambling laws, especially large-scale professional gambling rings, gangs and dens.

Nghia Dan district leaders awarded the district police for their achievements in dismantling a high-tech gambling ring. Photo: Minh Tam

In addition, the police force coordinated with the People's Procuracy and the People's Court at the same level to conduct mobile trials of a number of gambling cases, strictly handling the right people, the right crimes, and the right provisions of the law to prevent and educate the general public. In addition, the masses and the entire political system need to join in the fight to resolutely prevent gambling crimes in order to raise awareness of law enforcement, actively fight against social evils, participate in detecting and denouncing crimes, and ensure security and order in the area.