Two vice presidents of the Vietnam Golf Association play poker at a hotel in Vinh Phuc province on March 20, 2023 in this still image taken from video provided by police.
Two vice presidents of the Vietnam Golf Association who were caught red-handed by police playing high-stakes poker games have been charged with gambling.
Hung Nam and Tran Thanh Tu had bet between 100 million and 200 million VND ($4,080 to $8,160) per match, according to the indictment from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate sent to the HCMC court. Gambling in any form is illegal in Vietnam.
Thirty-nine other people, mostly golfers and businessmen, are accused of gambling and organizing gambling in the same case. A soldier involved in this case is the subject of a military investigation.
The Vietnam Golf Association organized a national tournament in the northern province of Vinh Phuc in March.
Tran Anh Linh, deputy director of the Southern Golfers’ team, gathered his golfers and the Northern Golfers’ team to play poker before the start of the tournament on March 23.
On March 20, police officers from the Ministry of Public Security caught Linh and his associates organizing a poker party for 18 people at a hotel in Vinh Phuc.
They seized tokens worth VND 4.6 billion.
Hung then lost VND134 million while Tu gained VND165 million, investigators found.
They also discovered that Linh and his accomplices had hosted poker games on several other occasions at the same hotel and at a house and apartment in HCMC since early March.
