Vietnamese police have busted a massive illegal online gambling ring in the country that was accepting cryptocurrencies to make transactions, leading to 59 people being detained.
As reported by state-owned broadcaster VTV, it was the biggest gambling ring busted in the country involving around $3.8 billion, which included the money put in by the gamblers but without the reciprocal money from the dealers.
The Vietnamese government allows controlled betting in casinos and some sports betting, but online gambling and private card rooms are strictly banned in the country. The report detailed that the crypto gambling organizers have established large-scale networks across various provinces and cities in the country.
Circumventing Rules with Crypto
To participate in the gambling rings, players need to purchase cryptocurrencies like Ethereum or stablecoin Tether from a foreign platform called, Remitano. Then, they use digital currencies to gamble on websites, such as Swiftonline.live and Nagaclubs.com.
Additionally, the report elaborated that the suspects have already admitted to the police about their role in organizing gambling on these platforms, which were local intermediaries of the international betting platform, Evolution.com.
Though the Vietnamese organizers received commissions from the primary gambling platforms, they even crashed the local websites to steal money from crypto wallets when a large number of gamblers were participating at the same time.
The organizers used social media to lure the gamblers in by showcasing luxurious lifestyles of fancy cars, expensive houses and extravagant parties. They even offered insurance packages to players, promising them a refund if they lost six games.
Apart from the detained people from the bust, the Ho Chi Minh City police even confiscated 55 laptops and desktops, 39 mobile phones and seven luxury cars, along with ATM cards and cash worth more than 2.9 billion dong (around $130,000).
