Ben Tre provincial police, working with the Ministry of Public Security's Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention, arrested Vo Vu Lam and 11 other people, the force said on October 15, 2023. The 12 are under investigation for organizing gambling and for gambling1.
Investigators identified Lam, Ngo Anh Khoa and Nguyen Minh Thoi as the leaders of the network. Police said they are continuing to work with 60 people in Ben Tre and Ho Chi Minh City to clarify their involvement1.
Lam and his co-defendants admitted to organizing gambling on the websites Sbobet.com, Ibet, Viva88 and SV388 from late 2023 onward, according to the account. The operation was structured across nearly 30 agents with hundreds of participating accounts, and total transactions exceeded VND 1,800 billion1.
"Công an tỉnh Bến Tre cho biết vừa phối hợp Cục An ninh mạng và Phòng chống tội phạm sử dụng công nghệ cao, Bộ Công an, bắt giữ Lam cùng 11 người khác"
Investigators described the group as a professional, large-scale criminal operation using sophisticated methods. To counter authorities, police said, it used high-tech equipment and software and social networks supplied from abroad, along with disposable SIM cards and bank accounts not registered in the holders' own names1.
The case is being expanded1.
What it means for players
Vietnam treats organizing gambling and gambling as offenses, and this case shows enforcement reaching both the operators and the wider network of agents and account holders around them. The 60 people police are still working with in Ben Tre and Ho Chi Minh City were not described as arrested, only as subject to further questioning, so their status has not been reported1.
The sites named, Sbobet.com, Ibet, Viva88 and SV388, are offshore operations accessed from Vietnam. Nothing in the account says anything about the treatment of ordinary bettors who held accounts under the network, and no figures for individual players have been reported1. For context on how Vietnam and its neighbors treat players rather than operators, see Online Gambling in Asia: The Law for Players in 12 Jurisdictions and Can I Gamble in Vietnam?.
The methods police highlighted, foreign software and social networks, disposable SIM cards and bank accounts held in other people's names, are the same tools that make offshore sites hard to trace and hard to recover money from. Players who cannot withdraw from such a site have limited recourse; see When an Online Gambling Site Won't Pay Out: What Players Can Do and Fake and Rigged Online Casinos: How Scam Gambling Sites Work.
What happens next
Police said the investigation is being expanded and that they are continuing to work with 60 people in Ben Tre and Ho Chi Minh City1. No court dates, charges filed or further arrests have been reported.
