Police in HCM City have arrested 11 Fillipino people for their involvement in an illegal gambling ring.
Seized evidence (Photo by DTiNews)
Five people were arrested in the first of two raids in Hiep Binh Chanh Ward, Thu Duc District, including Azacon VictorianoPanad, 74, Danilo Alejo De Villar, 60, Sison Manlelir Garcia, 65, Jannetee Dampil Yap, 37, and Myrana Leano Valdez, 47. Further police investigation led to five more arrests.
All the members of the group were in Vietnam on tourist visas. To avoid attracting attention many of them would leave the country every 20 days or so and then return.
One search turned up cash amounting to USD979, eight packs of playing cards and six Filipino passports, along with an assortment of other belongings.
At another location, the home of Thu Duc, the police found more cash worth USD383, cameras, cell phones and a motorbike, all of which police suspect were taken from tourists through organised gambling scams.
One Japanese tourist reported that she was cheated out of the equivalent of USD3,758.
In another incident, Cesar Devillar and Dindo Macachor confessed to having tried to swindle a 19 year-old Canadian woman. They met her walking on the street in District 1. After gaining her confidence, they lured her back to their home in Thu Duc District, where they convinced her to gamble. After the first four games of card, they attracted the woman by allowing her to win USD70,000 in total. During this incident they caught in the act.
Those arrested also admitted to having rented two houses in HCM City, which were used as illegal casinos.
According to their own confessions, they would walk the streets in search of tourists who they could convince to return with them. They would then play games of chance for increasingly high stakes, which would inevitably end in big losses for the victims of the scam.
Some of the suspects (Photo by VnExpress)
