UK firm Ladbrokes bids on Vietnam gambling scheme

Feb 22, 2007, 11:35 GMT

Hanoi - British betting giant Ladbrokes has made a 60-million-dollar offer to form a joint venture with Vietnam's government for legalized football betting, an official said Thursday.

The proposal, submitted to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's office last week, would set up a gambling commission majority owned by the government, according to Le Hung Dung, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Football Federation.

Punters would be limited to maximum bets of 450,000 Vietnamese dong (28 dollars) under the football gambling scheme.

Gambling has been illegal for decades in Vietnam, decried by the communist government as a 'social evil' - but it is as common as it is illegal.

The government began to consider legalizing gambling last year following a series of high-profile scandals, including an illegal betting ring that funneled millions of dollars in government road-building funds into gambling on English Premiership football.

The National Sports Committee last year estimated Vietnam could generate tens of millions of dollars in profits through legalizing gambling, money now lost to illegal syndicates.

The prime minister is expected to decide on the proposal in the next month, according to local newspaper Thanh Nien.