China Draws on Vietnam Police Forces to Escalate Anti-Gambling Campaign
Published September 2, 2019 by Lee R
Long-time iGaming opponent China is once again emerging as a thorn in the side for regional play.
China is ramping up what is emerging as a campaign to take down the online gambling industry in Asia.
China's Campaign Spreads to Neighbours
After supporting neighbouring Cambodia's shutdown of the iGaming industry, the Chinese government is now engaging in a new war of words with another neighbor, emerging economy and iGaming expansion host Philippines, while cooperating with the police forces of a third.
Joint Task Force in Vietnam
The third neighbour entering the fray is Vietnam, where a joint operation between China and Vietnam to take down the entire iGaming world in the region was confirmed with a huge bust.
New Cross Border Bust
The confirmation was delivered in the form of an announcement from China's Provincial Public Security Bureau that they had busted a major illegal online gambling and telecom operation in Vietnam.
China's government called the joint operation between China Hunan and Vietnam police a “new height in the Belt & Road cross-border police cooperation.”
The Operation
The investigation was revealed to have been originally launched in 2019 upon delivery of a tip to China's embassy in Vietnam. After the tip was forwarded to China's Ministry of Public Security, a massive investigation of over 330 allotted police was authorised.
A series of raids conducted on June 6th across Halong City and Nha Trang City resulted in the arrest and deportation of 77 Chinese nationals, with Chinese authorities arresting another 31 suspects in China while seizing an array of computers, phones and bank cards as well.
The Bust
The ring was busted for fraud and a litany of additional gambling-related crimes since it opened in 2017 while defrauding players and investors of billions of yuan annually while marketing online via WeChat social network and taking payment through online payment gateway AliPay.
China's New Cooperation
This is the first time China police have worked so closely with any neighbouring jurisdiction's forces, to extend a pattern of heightened cross-border cooperation between police as the precursor to what is shaping up as an all out campaign against online iGaming enterprises in the region, led by long-time gaming play and legislation repressor China, the strongest jurisdiction in Asia.
