[JoshW]

Gov’t to consider legalising betting

(13-03-2006)

HCM CITY — The Government is considering legalising betting on football and has told the sports authorities to study the issue and submit a draft proposal, a senior government official says.

Huynh Vinh Ai, vice chairman of the Sports and Physical Training Committee and also head of a committee set up to draft the proposal, said the measure was aimed at cleaning up the country’s football set-up.

The long-standing ban on football betting has only managed to drive it underground rather than root it out, in the process giving rise to match-fixing and other murky activities which have hurt the image of Vietnamese football, he said.

Ai said several issues had to be considered before any betting system was set up: For instance, the committee had to decide if there should be a limit on the amount punters could bet.

Another issue that would be considered, he said, was whether to allow betting on international matches or to limit it to domestic football.

A major issue was money laundering under the guise of betting if foreigners were allowed to bet, he said. The committee would discuss the problem with authorities in other countries before deciding, he said.

With the public unhappy with illegal betting and match-fixing attempts, its support for legalising betting was a given, he said.

While no decision had yet been made on how the system would be run or who would run it, Ai ruled out any role for the Viet Nam Football Federation. The governing body did not want to be both player and referee, he explained.

He estimated revenues from betting, once it was legalised, to run into hundreds of billions of dong. — VNS

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/s...um=05SOC130306