Euro 2016 illegal betting busts reach semis

The end of yet another week brings yet another crop of Euro 2016 betting busts across Asia.

We start in Vietnam, where the Ministry of Public Security arrested 12 people suspected of running a Ho Chi Min City-based online betting operation. The two ringleaders reportedly had links to other illegal betting rings that had been dismantled by Vietnamese authorities in recent months.

The HCMC-based betting operation handled wagers worth VND 450b (US $20m) via a number of Philippines-licensed websites, including Bong88.com and v9bet.com. Organizers opened over 200 accounts with banks and money lenders to transfer funds to and from the sites on behalf of their betting clientele.

In Singapore, the local Criminal Investigation Department arrested ten men suspected of facilitating illegal Euro 2016 wagers. The CID claimed the betting ring had handled over $2.4m in wagers in just the past two weeks. Police seized around $400k in cash, along with the standard haul of computers, phones and betting records. If convicted, the suspects are looking at up to five years in Singapore stripes.