HANOI: More than 380 Chinese nationals were detained during a raid on a gambling ring in Vietnam, state media reported on Sunday, in what police claim is the biggest-ever betting operation run by foreigners.

Most forms of gambling are illegal for locals in Vietnam, but the country has in recent years been used as a venue for online betting rings run by gangs from China and Taiwan.

Some 500 police officers in the northern port city of Hai Phong broke up the Chinese-run network in a raid late on Saturday on a gated community called Our City where rooms were used to transact online bets worth more than $400 million, state-run Vietnam Television said.

“This case is considered the biggest ever in terms of scale and the number of foreigners breaking laws on Vietnam’s soil,” VTV reported.

The 380 Chinese nationals fielded online wagers from Chinese punters on sports betting and ran an illegal lottery, it added.

According to the report, police also confiscated nearly 2,000 smartphones, 530 computers, bank cards and cash.

Vietnam’s one-party state has started loosening its rules on domestic gambling, allowing its citizens to bet in casinos on a trial basis and opening up some sports betting.

But lucrative illegal operations have mushroomed, prompting a crackdown on domestic gambling rings.

Dozens of people were convicted in Vietnam last year in connection with an online gambling ring run by a senior official in charge of policing internet betting.Gambling is illegal in Vietnam in most cases, though foreigners are allowed to gamble at local casinos. Last year, Vietnam said it would allow some local citizens to gamble at selected casinos on a trial basis.

The individuals, aged between 18 and 24, were arrested while operating online gambling websites from more than 100 rooms at a tightly-guarded urban area in Haiphong City, 100 kilometres east of Hanoi, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

It said the ring hosted online platforms for Chinese gamblers to bet on sports games and lotteries, with the amount of transactions estimated at 3 billion yuan ($436.14 million).

“This is the largest ever gambling ring in terms of both the number of foreigners involved and in terms of money in Viet­namese territory,” a statement from the Ministry of Public Security said.In Nove­mber, a Vietnamese court jailed two senior police officials found guilty of running an underground online gambling ring which raised millions of dollars.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2019