VietNamNet Bridge – Police of District 11, on Saturday, arrested 33 people suspected of betting on matches in the ongoing World Cup during a raid at a snooker shop on Au Co Street.

Illegal betting booms with World Cup

According to the local media, the group had gathered to place bets worth hundreds of millions of dong on the football matches.

Police seized VND143 million ($6,700) in cash, laptops and notes on the bets.

Initial investigation shows that the network was allegedly headed by 30-year-old Bach Thuy Vinh, who resides in Ward 14, District 11. He had started providing football betting services since the beginning of the World Cup 2014 currently being played in Brazil.

Ngo Minh An, from the office of the deputy head of Ha Noi Police High-tech Crime Prevention Department, told Tuoi Tre newspaper that football betting is getting more complicated as bettors can rely more on technology, which makes it more difficult to catch them.

Recently, the police have worked with Internet service providers and businesses to block more than 1300 foreign betting websites. Since the beginning of June, police have been working to prevent users in Viet Nam from accessing foreign betting sites, and coordinate with the State Bank of Viet Nam on monitoring bank accounts suspected of betting on football.

Last Thursday, police also broke a football betting network from Ha Noi – Bac Ninh Province with transactions worth more than 7.6 billion dong ($356,300)

Seven persons were detained. The racket was headed by 30-year-old Duong Manh Tung of Ha Noi.

Betting on football is illegal in Viet Nam.

VNS/VNN