When placing legal sports bets

The Ministry of Finance has just released a draft of a new decree for public comment, replacing Decree 06 of 2017 on the business of betting on horse racing, dog racing, and international football, which was issued eight years ago.

The draft focuses primarily on international football betting with numerous changes. Despite an 8-year delay and the complexities arising from the scale and forms of illegal sports betting, the new draft decree is considered to be a continued tightening, rather than loosening, of regulations on international football betting.

Previously, the draft decree allowed a maximum bet of 1 million VND per betting product per day and a maximum of 15 betting products. However, it now stipulates a maximum daily bet of 10 million VND across all betting products. Furthermore, only one entity will be licensed to provide betting services, with a pilot program lasting 5 years, accompanied by a series of other conditions regarding registered capital, international cooperation capabilities, and commitments to protect image rights for partner leagues. Essentially, this is a new move to gradually bring international football betting, as well as other sports betting, into the legal business. The draft also includes adjustments to increase the feasibility of betting business operations. For example, instead of only allowing betting on matches within the official system of the International Football Federation (FIFA), which do not occur regularly, participation will now be expanded to include leagues that are member federations of FIFA (understood as football leagues in Europe), and online betting will be permitted for late-night matches…

However, analysts believe that the bottlenecks that have prevented the implementation of international football sports betting for so long have not been addressed in the new draft decree, making it less transparent and less attractive to investors. The reason is that many provisions of the draft decree regarding betting are not appealing enough to attract players; businesses also find it difficult to solve the profit problem, especially during the relatively short five-year pilot period.

Furthermore, due to security and social safety concerns, the draft decree designs a strict legal framework that is not suitable for the specific characteristics and existing experiences of sports betting. In reality, Vietnamese players are currently heavily influenced by illegal betting organizations and websites operating in Vietnam. This can involve hundreds of betting products for each match, thousands of matches per week, and dozens of sports not just football, not to mention unlimited betting amounts or accounts.

Even those with no intention of betting are influenced by the blatant Vietnamese-language advertisements appearing on live television broadcasts of top tournaments. In other words, legitimate betting businesses in Vietnam will be unable to compete. If only one business is licensed, it will inadvertently have the opposite effect: illegal organizations will exploit the legality of betting to attract more players.

The slow implementation, stemming from a cautious assessment of the sensitive nature of sports betting and its significant impact on social security, is understandable for the regulatory authorities. However, the reality is that we have had sufficient time to analyze all risks, possess tools to control money flows through technological platforms, and have experience in combating cybercrime. These advancements in management are not addressed in the draft decree's regulations, turning seemingly "open" proposals into new "obstacles" to the implementation of international football betting in particular, and sports betting in general.

YEN PHUONG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/khi-dat-cuoc-the-thao-hop-phap-post814973.html