Scope is not expanded and list of permitted bets specified 

	Consider "loosening" international football betting conditions
	Ministry of Finance asserted not granting business license for international football betting

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tien

In the draft decree to amend Decree No. 06/2017/ND-CP made available for comments by the Ministry of Finance, there wasa new content that Vietnamese residentscan pay bets via intermediary channels such as e-wallets or mobile accounts. Is this different from the current regulations?

Currently, according to provisions of Decree No. 06, players placing bets via mobile phones must open a betting account at the betting company. When registering an account, the player must have a payment account at a credit institution.

According to provisions on non-cash payment, there are two forms of payment, including payment via bank account or via intermediary payment accounts (such as e-wallets or organisations that are not banks providing intermediary payment services licensed by the State bank).

Following the Government's policy on encouraging non-cash payment, in the draft decree, the Ministry of Finance is proposing to supplement the provision the players place the bets via mobile phonewhen open betting accounts, in addition to bank accounts, they can use payment methods such as e-wallets, mobile accounts of organizations that are not banks providing intermediary payment services licensed by the State Bank.

The payment via intermediary channels such as e-wallets or mobile accounts doe not face any difficulties, because now, a large proportion of people use smartphones; the expansion of payment links such as electronic wallets also facilitates payment transactions, including transactions on betting.This also contributes to improving State management capacity in controlling betting through the monitoring of identification with players.

How is betting supervision by identification monitoring understood?

The supervision of bets by identification monitoring means the player must open a betting account at the bank and provide the identity card number/citizen identification card/passport to ensure storage of management data of the State management agencies as well as betting firms.

The clarification of the list of permitted bets in the new draft decree, especially for international football betting, is getting publicattention. How is this content understood?

The draft decree does not propose to expand the betting scope and only specifies the list of international football leagues that are allowed to place bets. Accordingly, only three types of bets are allowed, including horse racing,greyhound racing andpilot international footbal bets.

Regarding permitted bets, the draft decree proposes to supplement and amend to specify the list as the basis for conducting international football betting includingthe list of international football matches and leagues.

This helps businesses build international football betting business plans as well as transparent bidding plans; helps State management agencies well perform functions of management, supervision and evaluation of the efficiency of the pilot international football betting business.

The draft proposes to amend the time limit for ending the bet to be consistent with international practices. Accordingly, the time limit for ending the bet must be amended towards ensuring the bet must be ended before the races starts for horse racing and greyhoundracing betting and before the event finishes for international football betting in accordance with international practices.