- A cryptocurrency betting ring was discovered and shut down by Vietnamese authorities
- An illegal gambling room was shut down in Honolulu, and a dozen gambling machines were seized.
LAS VEGAS – As with any rapidly growing market, the massive boom in the worldwide gambling industry has attracted attempts to capitalize on it in an illegal way. Two notable events have recently demonstrated these attempts.
Cryptocurrency Betting Ring
After Vietnamese authorities uncovered an online gambling ring, 59 people tied to the ring were detained by Ho Chi Minh City police.
The gambling ring reportedly revolved around cryptocurrency and online gambling sites, showing transactions of more than $3.8 billion.
Gamblers involved with the ring registered cryptocurrency wallets with a site called Remitano, and utilized it to purchase various cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Tether. These currencies would then be used to place wagers on two websites called Swiftonline.live and Nagaclubs.com.
Involved parties confessed to the authorities that they were organizing online gambling via these sites as intermediaries of gambling company Evolution.com for commission. They would wait for the website to accumulate a lot of players, and then crash the sites to appropriate the funds from digital wallets.
“This is a case of clear abuse of the Evolution brand,” said Carl Linton. “The sites mentioned in the article are not customers of Evolution and our games are not accessible through these sites.”
Honolulu Betting Room Arrest
Another recent instance of criminal activity in the gambling industry comes by way of an illegally operated gambling room in Honolulu.
During a raid conducted at a Kalihi residence on Wednesday, police discovered and seized a dozen gambling machines.
Officers also discovered both cash and a firearm within the illegally operated Hawaiian gambling room, and a 45-year-old man was arrested as a suspect for the promotion of gambling and possession of gambling devices.
He has since been released following the posting of his $200 bail.
As gambling continues to grow across the world market, people will become increasingly interested in getting involved with it in some way. Some of these attempts to take advantage of the growing market will inevitably be illegal.