Vietnamese Police Bust 3.8 Billion USD Crypto Gambling Ring
The country’s largest unlicensed online casino was detected. It happened in the capital city, Ho Chi Minh. They say it is the largest illegal gaming platform for gamblers in Vietnam. Vietnamese police have detained 59 suspects that have to do with this system. The information was provided by the state-owned broadcaster VTV.
The crypto gambling ring had transactions of over 3.8 bln dollars. This amount only consists of the players’ deposits. It does not include reciprocal funds from the dealer.
According to VTV and Bloomberg News, the owners of this web casino used Swiftonline.live and Nagaclubs.com, which mediated the Evolution brand. The intruders offered the casino users to register crypto wallets on the Remitano platform and transfer digital coins to play on gambling websites.
After the registration, players can use Ethereum (ETH) or Tether (USDT) to pay for gambling services. When spending that cryptocurrencies on platforms like Swiftonline.live and Nagaclubs.com, users risk losing their funds. After attracting an enormous number of users, they crashed the platforms to arrogate funds from the digital wallets. That is how the system worked.
This case nearly ruined the reputation of the Evolution brand. Its owner admitted that its slots and games aren’t accessible via the platforms mentioned above.
Ho Chi Minh police seized 40 laptops, 79 mobile phones, bank cards, vehicles, and cash worth more than 130,000 USD.
Several years ago, gambling was legalized in Vietnam, but only for those who hold foreign passports. However, the country is actively developing an illegal gambling network with neighboring Laos and Cambodia. It makes some of the local authorities get into trouble.
Are There Any Similar Cases?
This case is not the only one though it is the most large-scale up-to-date. Another example is Zhao Wei, a Laotian entrepreneur who has recently denied criminal allegations. The man intends to keep on expanding his gaming empire, attracting more and more gamblers from both Vietnam and its neighboring countries mentioned above,
The local media reps report that the entrepreneur runs the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ) in the Tonphing region of the northeastern province of Bokeo. Journalists even call this place a personal kingdom, while the locals call Zhao Wei an emperor. Thus, it is not that easy to withstand his illegal activities.
In general, cryptocurrency-related fraud costs victims worldwide billions of dollars every year. Thus, one has to be really careful before dealing with various services that accept crypto as the payment method or offer it in return.