Police in central Thua Thien-Hue province have busted an illegal football-betting and gambling ring, with the total amount spent by bettors and gamblers amounting to US$37.7million during the World Cup tournament.

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In their raid on the ring on Friday, police initially detained six people involved in the ring, which was led by Vo Van Nhan, 31, a resident of the province’s Hue City. On searching his house in Ho Chi Minh City, police seized VND200 million, US$400, 300 Canadian dollars, and a lot of material related to betting and gambling activities of the ring. Initial investigations showed that the ring began to operate in February and as much as $37.7 million had been spent through the ring by football bettors and gamblers of xóc đĩa, a popular Asian casino game played with different color tokens. The ring operated through many levels of management directed by Nhan, and his ring had attracted about 2,000 bettors and gamblers, investigators said. Similarly on June 3, police from the Ministry of Public Security broke up a huge illegal online football-betting ring, with an overseas web server and total wages amounting to almost US$66 million. Police detained six people involved in the ring on July 3, including Tran Quoc Khoi, 66, Phan Thanh Tam, 53, Dip Mot Sang, 52, Nguyen Thi Thu, 37, Huynh Cao Hoach, 30, and Nguyen Thuy Trang, 28. Upon searching their houses in Ho Chi Minh City, police seized 11 ATM cards, $1,100 in cash, 4 taels (4.8 ounces) of gold, seven mobile phones, equipment and devices, and many materials related to football betting. From the start of the World Cup, police have uncovered 112 cases of football betting through the Internet nationwide, arresting 752 people, the ministry reported. Of these cases, 28 occurred in HCMC, 26 in Hanoi and 18 in southern Can Tho province, the ministry said. 

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