Sports Betting in Vietnam

What sports betting exists in Vietnam

Sports betting in Vietnam is narrow by design. The law recognizes exactly three betting products: betting on horse races, betting on dog races, and betting on international football matches¹. Everything else, from basketball to tennis to domestic Vietnamese league football, has no licensed outlet anywhere in the country.

The framework dates to Decree 06/2017/NĐ-CP, issued in January 2017, which first allowed Vietnamese citizens to bet on international football and on horse and dog races⁵. Sports betting was later written into law as a conditional business, meaning it can only be operated under state control with specific approvals⁶. All stakes and payouts must be in Vietnamese dong⁷.

In practice, the football side has moved slowly. The government approved a pilot for international football betting, with football chosen as the initial sport for the trial⁸, and the Ministry of Finance has proposed rolling out all three betting types together⁹. For most of the period since 2017, however, no operator has held a valid certificate to actually take bets, so the licensed product has existed mostly on paper⁴. For the broader picture of what is and is not allowed, see our page on gambling in Vietnam.

The international football betting pilot scheme

The pilot scheme covers only matches and tournaments organized by FIFA and its member bodies. Domestic fixtures, including competitions run by the Vietnam Football Federation, are off-limits, and e-football is explicitly excluded as well². The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism publishes the list of eligible matches¹.

A single match can carry around 10 to 15 different betting products, based on score predictions, yellow and red cards, corner kicks and the first goalscorer, and the operator decides which of these to offer¹⁰. Bets may be based on the final score, events during the match or half, and standings in the tournament.

To place a bet, you must open an account with the licensed operator, linked directly to a verified payment account or e-wallet in your own name. All betting, deposits and payouts go through this account, which is how the operator verifies who you are and enforces the daily limits². Distribution works through betting terminals in some provinces and cities, and through telephone betting nationwide¹¹.

The pilot runs for five years. At the end of the trial, the government will assess how the scheme performed and decide whether to formally legalize the business or shut it down².

Bet limits: VND 10,000 minimum, VND 1 million a day

The stakes are deliberately small. The minimum bet is VND 10,000, and the maximum is VND 1 million per player per day, for each betting product, at one operator¹². In other words, if you bet on both a horse race and a football match in the same day, you have a VND 1 million cap for each, not one shared cap.

A draft decree has proposed keeping the VND 10,000 minimum but raising the daily maximum to VND 10 million per player per day¹⁰. The Ministry of Finance has likewise floated lifting the cap from VND 1 million to VND 10 million per person². Until a new decree is signed, the VND 1 million cap is the one in force.

For context, VND 1 million is roughly US$44 at the time the 2017 decree was reported⁵. The limits are a social-policy measure as much as a commercial one: they keep licensed betting small by design.

Who may bet

Bettors must be at least 21 years old with full civil act capacity³. This applies to Vietnamese and foreign bettors alike for the licensed betting products¹³, and it is higher than the 18-year minimum that applies to some other gambling products in Vietnam.

Several groups are excluded.

• Managers, executives and employees of a betting business, plus their parents, spouses and children, may not bet with that same business.
• Members of a race supervision council may not bet on races they supervise.
• Jockeys, players and referees, and their close relatives, may not bet on events they take part in or officiate.
• Persons under criminal prosecution or serving unserved sentences, and persons in compulsory education or rehabilitation, are also barred¹.

You can also be excluded at your own request, or at the request of a relative with full civil capacity, filed with the operator¹.

For telephone betting, you register an account with the operator providing your name, date of birth, ID or passport number, and a bank account at a licensed credit institution in Vietnam¹. Proposals have gone further still, suggesting bans on bankrupt persons, people with unpaid debts, welfare recipients and law violators¹⁴.

Foreigners and overseas Vietnamese are in a different position at casinos: with a valid foreign passport they may gamble at licensed casinos¹⁵, and players must carry documents proving they are eligible to play¹⁶. Acceptable ID includes a valid passport or citizen identity card¹⁷. Our pages on casinos in Vietnam and gambling in Vietnam as a visitor cover this in detail.

Online betting is not allowed

Operating a betting business over the internet is prohibited in Vietnam⁴. For players, this means there is no licensed online sportsbook, no app and no website where you can legally place a sports bet from inside the country. Even buying lottery tickets online is not permitted under current regulations¹⁸.

One more rule worth knowing: at licensed electronic gaming venues, players may not use game results to bet directly with each other²². Side bets between individuals are not part of any licensed product.

Horse and dog race betting

Horse and dog race betting is limited to races held at the operator's own racetrack, with bets based on finishing positions and events during the race, as set out in rules filed with the state agency. Betting is offered inside the racetrack through terminals, and only after one year of operation inside the track can the operator distribute betting nationwide by terminal and telephone¹.

Race meetings are capped at a maximum of three days per week, and races must finish before 23:00 on the betting day¹. Horse race betting has actually been organized at Phu Tho racetrack in Ho Chi Minh City since 1998, two years before dog racing began at Lam Son stadium in Vung Tau in 2000, making horse race betting the longest-running example of licensed race betting in the country⁸. Our horse racing in Vietnam page covers the racing side in more detail.

The Vietnam State Lottery: numbers games, not sports betting

The state lottery is the clearest legal gambling-style product in Vietnam, but it is a numbers game, not sports betting. There are no fixed-odds sports markets and no live betting²³. If you want to bet on football, the lottery is not a substitute; if you want a legal flutter on numbers, it is the most straightforward option. See our pages on the Vietnam lottery and Vietlott Keno for how those games work.

Offshore bookmakers serving Vietnamese players

Many offshore sites accept Vietnamese players. One review site counts 751 online casinos accepting players from Vietnam, licensed by regulators such as the UK Gambling Commission, the Curacao and Gibraltar Gaming Commissions and the Malta Gaming Authority²⁴. Asian bookmakers such as V9Bet have operated in the Vietnamese market for more than ten years, offering sports betting alongside casino games, cards, lottery and slots²⁵.

None of this makes them legal in Vietnam. A foreign license does not authorize a site to operate as a Vietnamese bookmaker, and users may face legal uncertainty, blocked payments, account closure and no reliable dispute process²³. Locals are not allowed to gamble online in the country, and online betting remains highly restricted, with offshore bookmakers not a locally licensed option²³. The practical risk for a player in Vietnam is that the activity is prohibited, and police actively pursue online betting rings¹⁹.

If you do use an offshore sportsbook, it helps to know how they settle bets. Under typical sportsbook rules, if a match is canceled, postponed or moved by more than 36 hours from the official start time, the result is void and all bets are canceled unless the sport-specific rules say otherwise, with void bets settled at odds of 1. Bets are usually settled after the match ends, and once placed a bet cannot be changed²⁶. Our page on online gambling in Vietnam goes deeper on the offshore landscape.

Esports and e-football betting

E-football is explicitly excluded from the licensed football pilot, and esports competitions are not among the three permitted betting products². There is no legal way to bet on esports inside Vietnam's licensed system.

Offshore sites fill that gap in practice. Live betting is available on every major football match, NBA game and large esports tournament at some bookmakers serving Vietnamese players²⁷, and simulated "virtual football" products come with Asian handicap betting, over/under odds and corner markets²⁸. All of it sits in the same unlicensed offshore space described above.

For the full picture, see our dedicated page on esports betting in Vietnam. It covers which titles draw the most betting interest, how esports odds and live markets work, and where the line falls between the licensed pilot and the offshore market.

Scams and third-party agents to avoid

Two warnings are worth heeding. First, the state lottery company has warned against third-party ticket purchasing services, which carry risks of disputes, complaints, money laundering and tax evasion, and where customers may not receive prizes or may be forced to share winnings²⁹. The same logic applies to anyone offering to place bets on your behalf.

Second, the Ministry of Finance has warned individuals and organizations to be cautious of advertising that claims to be licensed for paid football and sports result prediction. No such licenses have been issued for that business⁴. During the World Cup 2026 period, the Ministry of Public Security has likewise urged the public to recognize and avoid illegal football betting, including through social media agents²¹. Our page on betting scams in Vietnam covers the common schemes in detail.