VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Public Security has discovered the biggest-ever online gambling den in Vietnam and arrested eight people, including five in Ho Chi Minh City and three in Hanoi.

Last December, the Police Investigation Department of Social Security Crime broke a big gambling ring in Bac Ninh province and was rewarded by the Ministry of Public Security.

According to preliminary information from the police, this ring offered online gambles in various forms, such as horse racing, football, tennis, etc. The gambling money transferred abroad every day was up to dozens of million USD.

The police has detected an account used for online gambling, with up to VND10 trillion (over $470 million). There is an account that transferred up to VND100 billion ($5 million) once for gambling.

The huge numbers makes people curious about the super-rich gamblers in this ring. However, the police have not disclosed further information.

In the latest news, on January 17, the police arrested Cu Thi Thanh Hai,39, in Hanoi, who is the deputy director of an advertising firm.

On January 16, they arrested Hai’s younger brother, Cu Huy Giap, 31. Hai and Giap are considered as important "chains" in Hanoi.

Earlier, the police arrested five people in HCM City and one in Hanoi, including: Nguyen Le Sang (37,) Nguyen Le Giang (50,) Le Van Hai (24,) Phan Thi Kim Loan (35,) Nguyen Thai Ngan (21) from HCM City and Nguyen Anh Thai (33) from Hanoi.

Sang, 37, used to work for a bank in HCM City and is defined as the most important chain in HCM City.

The police searched the home of these people, seized VND565 million ($25,000), one 7-seat car, 8 laptops, 21 cell phones, 32 ATMs of different banks and some documents.

How the gambling ring works?

The National High-tech Crime Police Agency (C50) discovered signs of a huge gambling den. Soon after, project 511 C was established and carried out by C50 and the Police Investigation Department of Social Security Crime (C45).

They sent investors to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, An Giang and Tay Ninh to investigate and collect evidence.

According to the investigators, this online gambling ring was founded in the Philippines (website M88) and was introduced to Vietnam in early 2011.

This is a mortgage-style gambling site. The gamblers, after creating their accounts on the gambling website, have to open a banking account to transfer money into the account of the website organizer’s representatives in Vietnam.

The amount of money in the banking account will be converted into points (virtual money) for the gamblers to bet with the website owner through the internet.

The previously-detected gambling networks in Vietnam consist of two parts: the part of management for the master and organizer of the online gambling activities and the gamble part for the gambling accounts which could only work with the passwords provided by the master. In this form, the gambling activities are managed by Vietnamese partners.

For the M88 site, the overseas master directly manages the gambling operation of Vietnamese gamblers, without the participation of the Vietnamese agents. The role of the Vietnamese agents is transferring money from the gamblers to the overseas master.

T. Nhung