Betting on Football at the 2018 World Cup May be Punished with Up to 7 Years of Imprisonment

In Clause 1, Article 7 of Decree 06/2017/ND-CP, it is stipulated that players aged 21 and above, who have full civil act capacity, are permitted to participate in football betting.

The matches and tournaments in which players are allowed to participate in betting must be international football matches and tournaments announced and approved by the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) and announced by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism as a basis for international football betting business.

Based on the aforementioned regulation, players are not allowed to engage in football betting for the 2018 World Cup, as this year's World Cup has not yet been announced by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (VHTTDL) as a tournament permitted for betting. Anyone who engages in football betting during WC 2018 may be subject to administrative penalties or, in the most severe cases, criminal liability, depending on the level of violation.

Clauses 2 and 4, Article 26 of Decree 167/2013/ND-CP stipulate administrative fines ranging from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 VND for acts of betting with money or in other forms; fines ranging from 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 VND for organizing football betting without reaching the level of criminal liability.

Meanwhile, according to the provisions of the Ciminal Code 2015, acts of betting and organizing football betting will be handled in accordance with the provisions outlined in Article 321 – Illegal Gambling and Article 322 – Organizing Gambling and Gambling Dens.

To be specific, Clause 1, Article 321 stipulates: "Anyone who illegally gambles in any form, with stakes in money or other valuable items worth from 5,000,000 VND to less than 50,000,000 VND or less than 5,000,000 VND but has been administratively penalized for this act or for the acts specified in Article 322 of this Code, or has been convicted of this crime or the crime specified in Article 322 of this Code and has not had their criminal record expunged but commits the offense again, shall be fined from 20,000,000 VND to 100,000,000 VND, non-custodial reform for up to 03 years, or imprisonment from 06 months to 03 years."

If football betting acts are of a professional nature, illicitly gaining from 50,000,000 VND upwards or repeat dangerous offenses, imprisonment from 03 years to 07 years shall be imposed.

Regarding criminal liability for organizing football betting, Article 322 specifies fines ranging from 50,000,000 VND to 300,000,000 VND or imprisonment from 01 year to 05 years if the act of organizing falls into one of the following cases: Organizing for 10 or more people to gamble, where the total amount of money used for gambling is over 5,000,000 VND, or the total amount used in one gambling session is over 20,000,000 VND, among others.

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