HANOI, June 12: Four men in southern Vietnam have been arrested for running a betting ring on World Cup matches, police said on Monday. The men were taken into police custody on Sunday after a raid on a hotel in the southern Mekong Delta province of Can Tho where police confiscated US$4,300 and 12.6 million dong (US$790) of the betting money, a city police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

He said two of the men were permanent residents in the United States – Ha Lai Ninh, 38, from Texas and Thai Dac Phat, 39, from Florida. The other two were Vietnamese.

The police officer said the two only returned to Vietnam recently and began running the betting ring on Friday when the World Cup kicked off in Germany.—AP