Wu Ting Ting, 34, and her cousin, Wu Can Sen, 32 were sentenced to 6.5 years and 5.5 years respectively by the Ba Ria-Vung Tau People’s Court for organizing gambling.

A total of 18 other Vietnamese related to the case received either imprisonment or suspended sentences for gambling and organizing gambling.

Prosecutors said Ting was the mastermind, who prepared the location and equipment for the gambling operations.

She and a person named Wang Rong Hui, who is now on the run, hired people to run advertisements and persuaded others to gamble online, according to prosecutors.

Ting cooperated with Hui and others living outside of Vietnam to organize online gambling, with the servers placed outside the country.

They rented multiple houses in Vung Tau and bought computers, smartphones and SIM cards for their operations.

Ting also looked for Vietnamese accomplices, paying them VND7-8 million (US$298-341) a month, as well as bonuses. These people would use computers and smartphones to go into online groups and advertise gambling apps.

Once someone says they wanted to play, they would send links and instruct people how to set up accounts.

From April to July 2021, this gambling ring oversaw 11,000 people signing up for games, with transactions amounting to over VND1.4 billion ($59,678).

The money was used to pay salaries to Ting’s employees and for Ting’s personal use.

At the court, Ting said she was not the mastermind but merely hired to work for a group of Chinese people. Her lawyer also said that several accusations against Ting were untrue, and the true mastermind was Wang Rong Hui. But prosecutors dismissed these claims.