Disguised gambling advertisements are everywhere

Overflowing

Present at a beer house on Le Thanh Nghi Street (Hai Duong City), sitting next to our table was a group of young people around 17-18 years old, all holding phones in their hands. When we asked, we learned that this group was playing an online gambling game with money deposited from the J88 website. They learned about this website through advertising on tissue boxes in the beer house. Nguyen Anh Q. (18 years old) in Hai Duong City, a young man in the group, said that each turn, players spend from 50,000-500 million VND to buy the corresponding number of points. With just a few simple steps, players can easily access the site and play freely. Q. said that many young people are attracted to this game because of its eye-catching interface and many sexy girls in the application. After playing many times and getting used to it, Q. and some friends gradually became addicted to these games, even losing a lot of money. "Once, I lost more than 5 million VND in less than half an hour. That's a small number, many people lose tens of millions after just one night of playing this game," Q. said.

Mr. Nguyen Hung M. (22 years old) in Tu Ky district is also addicted to online gambling games. M. said that the advertising links and websites are available in beer pubs, coffee shops, even on stone benches and walls of houses. The advertisements are accompanied by short text and eye-catching images, stimulating players to access and learn more, such as "J...88 - Burning desire in you", "789win.com", "fish shooting - jackpot", "lucky money on the 9th of every month, 1,000 billion VND"... "The attraction of these disguised gambling games is that they are not limited by time, space, easy to play, easy to redeem", M. said.

Through the reporter's investigation, the shops advertising betting and disguised gambling are all attached to products and items used in the shop, in easy-to-see and easy-to-see places such as tissue boxes, beer openers, etc. Not only that, this advertising has also appeared in many localities in recent times. At the end of 2023, the gates and surrounding walls of many houses in 4 communes and towns of Tu Ky district were sprayed with football betting advertisements.

Bach Dang Park area (Hai Duong city) is also often sprayed with dirty advertisements.

Many consequences

Online entertainment games can be a playground for gambling addicts. These games not only cause many families to suffer from debt and mental insecurity, but also negatively affect security and order at the grassroots level.

NHH in Tu Ky district was originally a good-natured, hard-working boy. Since his friends invited him to gamble and then he became addicted to online gambling, H. quickly became a debtor. H.'s parents said they were almost exhausted and had a nervous breakdown because of their son. Holding his son's loan papers in his hand, Mr. V., H.'s father, sadly said: "My wife and I are construction workers, our income is not worth much, but we have to pay hundreds of millions of dong to our son. I have advised him in every way, but he still rushes in."

In fact, many families have fallen into debt with amounts ranging from tens to hundreds of millions of dong. An anonymous young man in Ninh Giang district confessed that he is in debt of nearly 100 million dong even though he has only been playing online fish shooting games for over a month...

According to the authorities, the subjects can also take advantage of such online gambling sites to insert links that lure users to follow their requests to carry out fraudulent activities and steal personal information. And it is also very dangerous when they take control of websites and obtain important information of organizations. The methods and tricks of the subjects are very sophisticated and modern.

At the end of 2023, the Criminal Police Department of Hai Duong Provincial Police prosecuted two subjects who spread a large number of text messages advertising gambling and prostitution websites, serving gambling, prostitution and property fraud activities. They are Vu Van Dai (born in 1984, in Tu Minh Ward, Hai Duong City) and Truong Van Bang (born in 1990, in Thang Long Commune, Kinh Mon).

The consequences of online gambling are huge. Many families have gone bankrupt. Authorities recommend that people be cautious when using the internet and participating in online games. To effectively prevent high-tech gambling, users need to distinguish between legal games and gambling games. Everyone needs to be aware that online gambling is also a violation of the law, causing economic damage to themselves, their families and causing negative consequences for society.