Vietnam arrests four more bookies for Euro 2004 gambling

HANOI: Four men were arrested in Vietnam for operating an illegal network that took bets on Euro 2004, taking the total number of gambling-related arrests during the championship to 643, police said Wednesday. The latest arrests were carried out last Friday after an employee of a state-owned chemical company confessed to police that he had stolen around one billion dong ($64,000) from company funds to gamble on the tournament. The 35-year-old man was detained on July 15 after fleeing the central port city of Danang for his girlfriend’s house in the southern province of Dong Nai. His confession led police to the Danang-based network with whom he had placed his bets and lost all the company money he had pilfered. Police said the four bookmakers, all aged 41, took between $6,000 and $19,000 in bets for each match of the 23-day competition, which wrapped up on July 4 with Greece’s victory over hosts Portugal. According to the Ministry of Public Security, 643 people in Vietnam were arrested for involvement in gambling during Euro 2004, during which punters illegally laid down several million dollars in bets. Despite being outlawed, football gambling is widespread in the communist nation. Low pay and poor morale often make police an easy target for bribes from underground bookmakers.