Vietnam Accuses 380 Chinese With Running Online Gambling Ring

(Bloomberg) -- Vietnam police detained more than 380 Chinese for allegedly operating an illegal online gambling operation considered the largest of its kind in the country.

They were arrested while running around-the-clock websites with transactions estimated at 3 billion yuan ($435 million) in the northern port city of Haiphong, according to a statement on the Ministry of Public Security’s website.

“This is a criminal organization with new and sophisticated ways of operating in cyberspace under the cover of foreign investment enterprises in Vietnam,” the ministry said in its statement.

The websites were being operated in a 43-hectare subdivision called Our City, which is popular with Chinese residents and backed with $85 million in investment by Hong Kong’s Qiafeng Group in 2010, according to a report on Tuoi Tre newspaper’s website.

Police also seized about 2,000 smartphones, 533 computers, bank cards, cash and documents.

Vietnam, which allows casinos for foreigners, restricts gambling for locals mostly to lottery. The government in 2017 approved a pilot plan to allow a limited number of Vietnamese to gamble at select casinos, with the first opening on Phu Quoc Island in January.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nguyen Xuan Quynh in Hanoi at xnguyen20@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeff Sutherland at jsutherlan13@bloomberg.net, John Boudreau

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