Country Focus

Vietnam cops smash $3.8bn crypto gambling ring

Vietnam police have confirmed the arrests of 59 people tied to the biggest illegal online gambling ring discovered in the country, with transactions totalling more than $3.8bn.

Detectives say gamblers in the ring registered cryptocurrency wallets on the Remitano platform to buy cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum or Tether.

They would then gamble through websites Swiftonline.live and Nagaclubs.com.

The suspects confirmed to authorities the organisation of online gambling on those sites, which allegedly acted as intermediaries to international betting platform Evolution.com in order to earn commissions.

It is suspected that, when a large number of players were active, they crashed the websites in order to steal money from the digital wallets.

Ho Chi Minh City Police also confiscated 40 laptops, 79 cell phones, ATM cards, vehicles and cash worth more than $130,000.

Teuta Franjkovic

Starting out as a staff writer with Cosmopolitan, Teuta has risen through the ranks of business journalism, editing daily newspapers and websites in the IT and economics industries. With a passion for creating opportunities and bringing people together, Teuta turned her attention to the world of crypto and blockchain. She holds a double MA in Public Politics and Entrepreneurship.