Vietnam's illegal betting market is valued at 1 billion U.S. dollars, the local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Thursday, quoting the estimation of an international auditing firm.

Vietnamese bettors made large bets on the final match between Barcelona and Arsenal under the Champions League 2006, and some 10 million dollars of the bets were made with foreign bookmakers, said Deloitte, one of leading professional providers of audit, corporate finance, consulting, tax and legal services.

Vietnamese police detected a total of 348 cases of soccer betting in 39 cities and provinces nationwide with the involvement of 1,554 people during the World Cup 2006. They confiscated over 3. 4 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (213,800 dollars) and more than 100,000 dollars, the newspaper said.

Vice chairman of the Vietnam Football Federation, Le Hung Dung, said the National Sports and Physical Training Committee will, within this month, report to the government a scheme on legalizing betting activities in the country, in a move to prevent illegal betting and foster the state budget.

To prevent bookies from spending too much on betting or attempting to fix soccer matches, the committee plans to place a cap on the value of bets. It also plans to join hands with foreign partners to run services for betting on both domestic and international soccer tournaments.

Committee officials said Vietnam has few soccer events, and it is inexperienced in running the services which closely relate to application of information and communication technologies, and require specific measures to prevent money laundering.

Like other kinds of gambling, except for casinos designated for foreigners and overseas Vietnamese, soccer betting is now illegal in Vietnam. Dozens of local bettors and bookmakers have been detained during major national and international soccer tournaments.

Source: Xinhua