Vietnamese authorities have arrested 85 people in connection with two massive illegal betting operations worth a combined $133-million, as the government intensifies its crackdown on unlawful gambling during the ongoing World Cup.

Police in Ho Chi Minh City described the two betting rings as having an “exceptionally large scale of operation” with a “high level of hierarchy and tight control”. The raids, conducted in late June, uncovered betting operations that had logged an estimated $133-million in illegal transactions since October.

Leaders of the syndicates admitted to receiving master-level betting accounts from individuals in Cambodia, which they then subdivided into numerous agent and member accounts to distribute to gamblers online, according to a police statement released on Tuesday.

The arrests form part of a wider nationwide crackdown on illegal gambling during the World Cup. Vietnam’s public security ministry revealed last week that police had dismantled 73 gambling operations across the country, arresting 346 suspects involved in illegal gambling and football betting during the first 20 days of the tournament.

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“Transaction money in these cases totalled thousands of billions of dong (hundreds of millions of dollars),” said colonel Bui Tuan Anh of the public security ministry.

Online gambling remains banned in Vietnam, but lucrative illegal operations continue to flourish in the communist country, prompting periodic clampdowns, particularly during major international sporting events.

Canada, Mexico and the United States are jointly hosting World Cup matches this year, with the final scheduled for 19 July.

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