In June 2017, the government of Vietnam issued a decree authorizing the rollout of a 5-year pilot program with which certain forms of gambling is legal. Sports wagers can only be placed on horse and greyhound races as well as organized football games. The ban on casino gambling is still enforced in some establsihments, although ta 3-year program that allows locals to gamble in a specific casino, is also ongoing.
Football Betting in Vietnam
During the 5-year pilot program betting on football games are limited to football competitions organized by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the international governing association of federal football associations, e.g. World Cup, Europa, Champions, Copa America and the Confederations Cup.
Moreover, the Ministry of Finance is the sole authority in charge of issuing sports betting licenses. Just like in other jurisdictions, Vietnam-based sports betting operators will be under the supervision and regulation of relevant government agencies; to ensure proper collection of taxes on gambling revenues and compliance with anti-money laundering laws.
Since the Ministry of Finance is at the helm of the supervised gambling operations, fees and tax revenues collected by the government will be allotted as part of state budget and some to the Vietnam Football Federation, for the development of the country’s local sports
The required capital that horse racing and football betting operators must put up as charter investment is 1 trillion Vietnam Dollars ($44.2 million). Greyhound racing betting operators, on the other hand, are required to put up 300 billion Vietnam Dollars ($13.2 Million).
Actually, some local gamblers say that until today, there is still no football betting site that can be called legal in Ho Chi Minh City.
Online Sports Betting in Vietnam
In order to prevent Vietnamese gamblers from placing bets at online sportsbooks, the country’s Internet Service Providers were ordered to block about 200 offshore-based betting sites. However, in today’s online gambling platforms, Vietnamese gamblers can simply go mobile by using smartphone apps and VPN connection when placing wagers in offshore sports betting sites that welcome mobile punters from Vietnam.
https://youtu.be/L3kPMokYs6w
VPN, by the way stands for Virtual Private Network, a messaging sytem in which servers encrypt data before sending the message via the public Internet.
Among the elite group of online sportsbooks operators accepting wagers from Vietnamese gamblers is Vwin. A member of the WW Company, Vwin holds an online gambling license issued by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR). Actually, Vwin is the Asian gambling partner of Italian professional football club A.C. Milan Serie A.
The vwin website is more than just a sports book, as it also offers a wide array of online slots and casino table games.