From ancient times until now, the flourishing Euro season has been an opportunity for many opportunists to organize gambling, leading people to ruin their families' wealth. From a leading European football season, it has become a haunting gambling season for Vietnamese society.
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People often say that playing sports requires “a bit of betting” to be exciting. It is true that most agree with that, but how to bet to truly enjoy it? If it’s just a morning coffee or a lunch, that’s very fun already. But if the bet is tens of millions or hundreds of millions, then it's really "no longer fun."
A peaceful family situation turning to "no house left to live in" after a soccer match due to betting is not uncommon. Betting not only affects the life of the participant, their entire family, and loved ones, but it also brings with it numerous crimes such as theft, violence, and assault, posing a danger to society.
Soccer betting was first regulated under the form of a gambling crime in Article 248 of the 1999 Penal Code, amended in 2009. Specifically:
If the crime involves aggravating circumstances, the bettor can be fined and sentenced to up to 07 years in prison, with fines of up to 30,000,000 VND (Clause 2, Clause 3, Article 248).
Organizers of betting are regulated in Article 249 as follows:
If the crime involves aggravating circumstances, the organizer can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined up to 100,000,000 VND, with partial or total confiscation of property.
In reality, despite clear regulations and more than ten years of implementation, soccer betting has not shown any signs of decreasing; instead, it continues to rise. Is it possible that the 1999 Penal Code regulations are too lenient and no longer a deterrent?
From July 1, 2016, the penalty framework for gambling crimes has become stricter. Specifically, Article 321 of the 2015 Penal Code stipulates:
If the crime involves aggravating circumstances, the bettor can be sentenced to up to 07 years in prison and fined from 10,000,000 VND to 50,000,000 VND (Clause 2, Clause 3, Article 321).
Although the guiding decree for implementing the 2015 Penal Code has not been issued, inheriting the intent from the 1999 Penal Code, amended in 2009, it is difficult for the law to ignore soccer betting. The 2015 Penal Code will officially take effect from July 1, 2016, at which point the Euro season will still have 10 days of matches left. Let us wait and see who will be the first to "open the account" for the new level of penalties.
