Vietnam police have cracked a major online gambling ring which attracted bets of more than US$26 million from Vietnamese players.
According to a report in VnExpress, a website named 12bet was at the center of the illegal ring offering sports betting, online casino games and lottery products.
Police first discovered the illegal gambling ring in early 2017 and had been tracking its activities since before arresting four suspects – named as Vo Van Nghia, Vo Van Hoa, Do Thi Tu Anh and Phan Thanh Hoang – for organizing gambling last week.
Another four suspects had their houses searched and over VND300 million (US$13,000) in cash confiscated.
The arrests come just a few months after Vietnam police cracked one of the biggest illegal gambling rings in Vietnamese history, having attracted bets totaling VND9.6 trillion (US$419.7 million) since launching in April 2015. The ring had been operated by two prominent Vietnamese tech businessmen and led to a number of high profile arrests including those of former director of the General Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, Phan Van Vinh, and former director of the ministry’s cyber-crime division, Nguyen Thanh Hoa.
Both are suspected of being involved with the gambling ring.
