Warning about football betting crimes during Euro season

The European Football Championship (Euro) 2024 is taking place, an event that attracts a large number of fans to follow.

However, along with this major sporting event is a significant increase in gambling. Football betting is a form of gambling that has existed for a long time, in the current period, taking full advantage of cyberspace, the forms and tricks of the subjects are increasingly sophisticated. Football betting is the cause of many other types of crimes and violations of the law such as: "Black credit", fraud, robbery, theft of property...

Every time there is a big football tournament, the worry about football betting becomes an obsession for the family of Mr. TVT in Cau Dien ward, Nam Tu Liem district, Hanoi. Because, from playing small games for fun with friends, Mr. T has lost hundreds of millions of dong on football betting online.

Người dân xem bóng đá tại một quán cà phê ở quận Nam Từ Liêm, TP Hà Nội. Ảnh: NGUYỄN HUYỀN — People watch football at a coffee shop in Nam Tu Liem district, Hanoi. Photo: NGUYEN HUYEN

Mr. T said: “I feel lucky to have given up football betting. Betting has turned my life and my family upside down. I lost sleep and had headaches, and I lost a lot of money before I realized: “Only the bookie wins, the player never wins” and no one can get rich from gambling, but if you get involved, you will only lose your family. Currently, depositing money to participate in betting is very simple, just transfer money to a certain individual and your betting account on the website will have money immediately. The time to perform betting operations only takes 1-2 minutes".

Euro 2024 has only been going on for a week, but local police have already dismantled many large-scale football betting rings and gangs. In addition, advances in online betting technology and marketing by relevant parties have attracted many players. Most recently, on June 22, Hai Chau District Police (Da Nang City) announced that they had arrested 14 suspects in an online football betting ring worth more than VND1,000 billion.

Investigation results determined that from August 2023 to present, this group was provided by the bookmaker with a total account with a limit of 3 million USD/month to bet on domestic and international football matches, including the Euro 2024 football tournament. After that, the suspects allocated and divided the account with a smaller limit to lower-level agents to continue organizing football betting for many people; also on June 22, the Criminal Police Department, Quang Binh Provincial Police coordinated with Bo Trach District Police to successfully break up a group of subjects gambling in the form of football betting via the internet with transactions of more than 10 billion VND...

Talking to us, Lieutenant Colonel Do Thi Phuong Thanh, Department of Criminal Investigation, People's Police Academy, said: "Currently, betting has become a very dangerous problem in many countries, including Vietnam. Meanwhile, people who are passionate about betting do not necessarily have a true love for sports.

Football betting has the characteristics of gambling in general, "win is greedy, lose wants to recover", so very few players know when to stop. When losing a bet, to have more money to recover, especially when under pressure of debt, in the player's mind, there is only the thought of finding a way to earn back the money, sinking deeper in the hope of being able to recover. It is very difficult for bettors to win because the "bookie" has a team of experts who understand football very well and offer bets that closely follow the situation of the match, how to benefit them the most. Therefore, people absolutely need to say no to football betting. This is an act that can be prosecuted criminally".

Just type in the phrase “football betting website”, Google search engine will give more than 23 million search results in just 0.19 seconds. The popularity of football betting websites with many attractive betting offers, diverse betting forms, high security, no fear of revealing identity and convenient payment methods are factors that greatly influence, attract players to participate in online football betting, leading to violations of the law.

Talking to us, Colonel Doan The Vinh, Head of the Department of Prevention and Combating Social Evils Crimes, Criminal Police Department, Ministry of Public Security, said: “The subjects think that the functional forces find it difficult to control cyberspace, however, we always have appropriate professional measures, take the lead, identify and proactively handle groups and lines of football betting activities. All betting activities are traced on cyberspace, many lines with very sophisticated operating methods but we still successfully dismantled them.”

People participating in football betting also risks many consequences such as losing and not having money to pay, being arrested, having their property extorted or hiring "gangsters" to collect debts... Some people who are in a dead end may resort to robbery, theft or hiding to avoid paying their debts.

To proactively prevent and combat gambling crimes in the form of football betting on the Internet, the Ministry of Public Security recommends that people fully understand the good entertainment values of this sport, and watch football with a healthy entertainment mentality. In case of detecting suspicious subjects related to football betting, it is necessary to promptly report to the nearest police agency for reception and resolution.

According to People's Army Newspaper

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