Chinese couple probed for running gambling ring in Vietnam

Wu Ting Ting, 32, her husband Sun Jingo, 46, another Chinese national Wu Can Sen, 30, and around 20 Vietnamese men and women, mostly residents of the southern Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province, have been detained pending the investigation into their illegal activities.

Police believe Ting is the ring leader. She has been released on bail for raising her young child.

Investigators say the ring used computers and smartphones and installed apps linked to gambling websites with servers outside Vietnam.

Ting and her husband rented a three-storied house on Vo Thi Sau Street in Vung Tau Town.

She hired three Vietnamese citizens and paid them VND8-10 million ($350-440) per month for advertising the gambling facility on social media and act like gamblers themselves in order to lure people into gambling.

After a period of surveillance, police raided the rented house in July, seized seven computers, 110 smartphones, 16 sim cards, 16 bank cards, and $5,000 in cash.

Police said several hundred people have gambled billions of dong via Ting’s ring. (VND1 billion = $44,000)

Gambling remains illegal in Vietnam, though Vietnamese are known for their love of gambling. There are a handful of licensed casinos in the country, but only foreign passport holders are allowed to gamble there.

For now, only two casinos, one on the southern island of Phu Quoc and the other in Van Don in the northern province of Quang Ninh, are allowed to admit Vietnamese.