Is there a fine for playing blackjack during the Vietnamese New Year holiday in 2023? Is it criminally prosecuted?
Is there a fine for playing blackjack during the Vietnamese New Year in 2023?
Pursuant to Article 28 of Decree 144/2021/ND-CP of Vietnam regulating illegal gambling in Vietnam as follows:
Illegal gambling in Vietnam
1. A fine of from VND 200.000 to VND 500.000 shall be imposed for participation in lottery-based gambling:
2. A fine of from VND 1.000.000 to VND 2.000.000 shall be imposed for any of the following violations:
a) Illegally gambling with one of the forms such as “xoc dia”, “ta la”, “to tom”, “tu lo kho”, “tam cuc”, “3 cay”, “tu sac”, “do den”, “co the”, “binh an do 6 la”, “binh xap xam 13 la”, “tien len 13 la”, “da ga”, “tai xiu” or other forms which are lost or won in cash, property or in kind;
b) Gambling with machine or illegal electronic games;
c) Illegally betting in sports competition, entertainment or other activities.
3. A fine of from VND 2.000.000 to VND 5.000.000 shall be imposed for any of the following violations:
a) Illegally receiving deposit, pawn or loan at casinos or other gambling places;
b) Selling illegal lottery number, lottery sheet or printed matters used for playing illegal lottery; handing them over to another person to receive commissions;
c) Assisting, concealing the illegal gambling;
d) Protecting illegal casinos or other gambling places;
dd) An owner, a manager of machine or illegal electronic games, a head of business establishment in term of electronic games or another business establishment allows illegal gambling to happen at their establishments due to lack of sense of responsibility
4. A fine of from VND 5.000.000 to VND 10.000.000 shall be imposed for one of the acts of gambling organization as follows:
a) Enticing, inciting or gathering people for illegal gambling;
b) Using home or accommodation or other means and locations to organize the gambling;
c) Illegally placing gambling or electronic game machine;
d) Organizing illegal betting activities;
5. A fine of from VND 10.000.000 to VND 20.000.000 shall be imposed for one of acts of organizing the illegal lottery as follows:
a) As a banker;
b) Organizing the production and distribution of illegal lottery sheets or other printed matters used for illegal lottery playing;
c) Organizing network for sales of illegal lottery;
d) Organizing the betting in sports competition activities, entertainment or in the other forms to play gambling for money;
6. Additional penalties:
a) Confiscate the exhibits and means used for committing administrative violations specified in Clause 1, Clause 2; Points a and b Clause 3 and Points b,c and dd Clauses 4 and 5 of this Article;
b) Suspend operation for 06 - 12 months in case of commission of the violation specified in point d Clause 3 of this Article;
c) Expel foreigners committing the administrative violations specified in Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this Article.
7. Remedial measure:
Enforced return of benefits illegally obtained from the commission of the violation in Clause 1, Clause 2 or Points a and b Clause 3; points b, c and d Clauses 4 and 5 of this Article.
Thus, blackjack gambling is considered as one of the illegal gambling acts with the aim of gaining and losing with money, property, and in-kind. Therefore, gambling in the form of blackjack on the Vietnamese New Year holiday can be administratively sanctioned as follows:
- A fine of from VND 1.000.000 to VND 2.000.000 shall be imposed for blackjack gambling with the aim of gaining and losing with money, property, and in-kind.
- A fine of from VND 2.000.000 to VND 5.000.000 shall be imposed for any of the following violations:
+ Illegally receiving deposit, pawn or loan at casinos or other gambling places;
+ Assisting, concealing the illegal gambling;
+ Protecting illegal casinos or other gambling places;
+ An owner, a manager of machine or illegal electronic games, a head of business establishment in term of electronic games or another business establishment allows illegal gambling to happen at their establishments due to lack of sense of responsibility
- A fine of from VND 5.000.000 to VND 10.000.000 shall be imposed for one of the acts of gambling organization as follows:
+ Enticing, inciting or gathering people for illegal gambling;
+ Using home or accommodation or other means and locations to organize the gambling;
- Additional penalties:
+ Confiscate the exhibits and means used for committing administrative violations;
+ Suspend operation for 06 - 12 months in case of commission of the violation specified in point d Clause 3 of this Article;
+ Expel foreigners committing the administrative violations specified in Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this Article.
- Remedial measure:
+ Enforced return of benefits illegally obtained from the commission of the violation in Clause 1, Clause 2 or Points a and b Clause 3; points b, c and d Clauses 4 and 5 of this Article.
Is there a fine for playing blackjack during the Vietnamese New Year holiday in 2023? Is it criminally prosecuted?
Will persons playing blackjack on the Vietnamese New Year in 2023 go to jail?
Pursuant to Article 321 of the 2015 Criminal Code of Vietnam (amended by Clause 120, Article 1 of the 2017 Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of Vietnam), the crime of illegal gambling is specified as follows:
Illegal gambling
1. A person who illegally gambles in any shape or form with the stakes (in cash or kind) assessed at from VND 5,000,000 to under VND 50,000,000, or under VND 5,000,000 despite the fact that he/she has incurred an administrative penalty for the same offence or any of the offences specified in Article 322 hereof or has an unspent conviction for the same offence or any of the offences specified in Article 322 hereof shall be liable to a fine of from VND 20,000,000 to VND 100,000,000, face a penalty of up to 03 year's community sentence or 06 - 36 months' imprisonment.
2. This offence committed in any of the following circumstances carries a penalty of 03 - 07 years' imprisonment:
a) The offence is committed in a professional manner;
b) The stake is assessed at VND ≥ 50,000,000;
c) The offence is committed using the Internet, a computer network, telecommunications network or electronic device;
d) Dangerous recidivism.
3. The offender might also be liable to a fine of from VND 10,000,000 to VND 50,000,000.
Thus, a person who illegally gambles in any shape or form (including blackjack) can be criminally prosecuted for gambling if he/she is in the following cases:
Penalty frame 1: Committing the crime in one of the cases in Clause 1 above, the offenders shall be liable to a fine of from VND 20,000,000 to VND 100,000,000, face a penalty of up to 03 year's community sentence or 06 - 36 months' imprisonment, specifically:
- A person who illegally gambles in any shape or form with the stakes (in cash or kind) assessed at from VND 5,000,000 to under VND 50,000,000;
- Or under VND 5,000,000 despite the fact that he/she has incurred an administrative penalty for the same offence or any of the offences specified in Article 322 of the 2015 Criminal Code of Vietnam or has an unspent conviction for the same offence or any of the offences specified in Article 322 of this Code.
Penalty frame 2: This offence committed in any of the following circumstances carries a penalty of 03 - 07 years' imprisonment:
- The offence is committed in a professional manner;
- The stake is assessed at VND ≥ 50,000,000;
- The offence is committed using the Internet, a computer network, telecommunications network or electronic device;
- Dangerous recidivism.
Additional penalty: The offender might also be liable to a fine of from VND 10,000,000 to VND 50,000,000.
Children playing blackjack during the Vietnamese New Year holiday are fined?
Pursuant to the provisions of Article 134 of the 2012 Law on Handling of Administrative Violations of Vietnam (amended by Clause 68, Article 1 of the 2020 Law on amendments and supplements to certain articles of Law on Handling of Administrative Violations) on the principles of handling administrative violations against minors as follows:
- The application of a sanction type and the decision on the sanction amount against minors committing administrative violations must conform to the principle that these sanctions must be lighter than those imposed on the adults committing the same administrative violations. To be specific:
+ In case a person aged between 14 years and under 16 years commits an administrative violation, the fine shall not be applied.
+ In case where a person aged between 16 years and under 18 years that commits an administrative violation is subject to a fine, the fine amount must not a half as much as that applicable to an adult; in case where he/she must pay an amount equivalent to the value of material evidence and/or means used in the commission of administrative violation into the state budget, the amount of payment into the state budget must be a half as much as the value of material evidence and/or means used for commission of administrative violation.
Thus, for 15-year-olds playing blackjack, the fine shall not be applied.
In addition, 15-year-olds playing blackjack will not be criminally prosecuted for gambling under Article 12 of the 2015 Criminal Code of Vietnam (amended by Clause 3, Article 1 of the 2017 Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of Vietnam) as follows:
Age of criminal responsibility
1. A person from 16 years of age and above shall bear criminal responsibility for every crime, except for those otherwise prescribed by this document.
2. A person from 14 years of age to be low 16 years of age shall bear criminal responsibility for very serious crimes and extremely serious crimes specified in Articles 123, 134, 141, 142, 143, 144, 150, 151, 168, 169, 170, 171, 173, 178, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 265, 266, 286, 287, 289, 290, 299, 303, 304 hereof.
Thus, a person from 14 years of age to be low 16 years of age shall bear criminal responsibility for very serious crimes and extremely serious crimes specified in Clause 2 above.
In which there is no crime of gambling specified in Article 321 of the 2015 Criminal Code of Vietnam, so 15-year-olds playing blackjack will not be criminally liable for gambling.
However, offenders may be subject to other supervision and education measures in the 2015 Criminal Code of Vietnam if they commit this crime.
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