Lawyer Bui Quang Nghiem, deputy head of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, said these games, requiring people to send messages from their mobile phones often paying up to VND15,000 (nearly $1) per message, amounted to bookmaking, which is illegal in Vietnam.

If they paid the normal messaging cost of a few hundred dongs, and the organizers did it merely as a publicity gimmick and handed out small prizes, it would be “a different thing”. Prizes of up to VND50 million (US$3,125) are on offer now.

Many such games had mushroomed with viewers having to predict football scores, winners of certain contests, and even outcomes of TV soaps.

The channels were basically “organizing gambling”.

Nghiem wanted to check if the games had been licensed saying either way it was improper: If concerned authorities had not issued licenses, the games were illegal; if they had, it was “greatly unreasonable” because the law on betting was yet to be passed.

Betting is illegal in Vietnam except for the government-run lottery.

Luu Van Tam, head of Thai Ha Lawyer’s Office, said such games made huge profits and demanded to know if the organizers paid taxes to the state.

Thanh Nien discovered that the organizers give away not more than 12.5 percent of the money they get from these games. Besides, “the decision to choose the winner rests entirely with the organizers”, an official from one of the organizers told Thanh Nien on condition of anonymity.

“They have 100 percent control over prizes and can hand them out to anyone they choose.”

Jackpots like motorbikes and cash prizes of VND30 or 50 million were false claims and never awarded, with only cash prizes of VND10,000 or VND20,000 usually given, he confessed.

The organizers only handed out prizes after earning a certain revenue from the games, ensuring they never lost.

On the other hand, the government lottery sometimes loses money if it does not sell many tickets.

Besides, lottery winners were always chosen through a transparent draw, aired live or monitored by the public, unlike the TV games, the official added.

Phan Sao Nam of digital TV station VTC said his channel selected the winner randomly – for instance, it automatically picked out the 10,000^th person to send a cell phone message for a prize, he claimed.

“It is random, public, and transparent,” he insisted.

Source: Thanh Nien - Translated by A.N.O.N