Vietnam golf chiefs to stand trial for playing high-stakes poker games

Le Hung Nam and Tran Thanh Tu had bet VND100-200 million (US$4,080-8,160) per game, according to the indictment by the Supreme People's Procuracy sent to a HCMC court. Gambling in any form is illegal in Vietnam.

Thirty nine others, mostly golfers and businesspeople, are charged with gambling and organizing gambling in the same case. A soldier involved in the case is being investigated by the military.

The Vietnam Golf Association had organized a domestic tournament in the northern Vinh Phuc Province in March.

Tran Anh Linh, deputy head of the Southern Golfer Team, had gathered his golfers and the Northern Golfer Team for poker before the tournament started on March 23.

Police officers from the Ministry of Public Security caught Linh and his associates organizing the poker for 18 people at a hotel in Vinh Phuc on March 20.

They seized chips worth VND4.6 billion.

Hung had lost VND134 million by then while Tu won VND165 million, investigators found.

They also found that Linh and his accomplices had organized poker games on several other occasions at the same hotel and a house and an apartment in HCMC since early March.