HANOI, Vietnam: Vietnamese police have dismantled two large-scale illegal football betting networks involving estimated transactions of $133 million, as authorities intensify a nationwide crackdown on unlawful gambling during the FIFA World Cup.
Police in Ho Chi Minh City said on Tuesday that 85 people had been arrested following raids in late June targeting the two betting operations, which they described as having an “exceptionally large scale of operation” and a highly organised structure.
According to investigators, the networks had processed illegal betting transactions worth around $133 million since October. The operations allegedly relied on online platforms to facilitate football gambling, which remains prohibited in Vietnam.
Police said the suspected organisers admitted obtaining “master-level betting accounts” from individuals in Cambodia before dividing them into smaller agent and member accounts to expand their gambling networks and attract more participants.
The arrests are part of a wider campaign by Vietnamese authorities against illegal betting activities linked to the World Cup.
The Ministry of Public Security said last week that police had broken up 73 gambling operations nationwide and arrested 346 suspects involved in football betting and other forms of illegal gambling during the tournament’s first 20 days.
Colonel Bui Tuan Anh of the ministry said the total value of transactions uncovered in those cases amounted to thousands of billions of Vietnamese dong, equivalent to hundreds of millions of US dollars.
Illegal online gambling remains a persistent challenge in Vietnam, with authorities regularly launching crackdowns during major international sporting events when betting activity typically increases.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is being hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States, with the final scheduled to take place on July 19.
