Ho Chi Minh Police Break Up Illegal Vietnam Casino

28 people were arrested in a recent police operation to break up one of Vietnam’s major gambling rings.

Although the country has a number of casinos, Vietnamese gambling laws forbid locals from entering them. The illegal lottery ring was led by 36-year-old Nguyen Ngoc Thang, previously convicted of mugging, robbery and causing public nuisance.

Local gambling news say the ring had been operating for more than a year, by organizing so de, an illegal numbers game based on lottery. Players are allowed to wager any amount they want and they get payouts up to 80 times their original bet.

Thang co-opted dozens of agents across the city and they were totaling dozens of billions of dong every day from all bets collected.

Caught red-handed

The illegal Vietnam casino was run from a rented villa in District 2’s Thao Dien Ward. Security cameras and alarms were installed all over the place, to spot anyone approaching. A major operation involving 120 police officers managed to deactivate the security system and break up the illegal gambling ring.

Thang and his subordinate Nguyen Huu Loc were caught right as they were receiving 87 messages from their betting agents. Officers also arrested 26 of Thang’s agents, seizing VND 2 billion ($94,000), 7 ATM cards, 895 so de betting notes, 30 fax machines, 23 computers and 47 cell phones.