Police in Hải Dương Province have busted an online gambling ring and launched legal proceedings agaInst 19 people allegedly connected with the case, online newspaper vietnamplus.vn reported yesterday.

The transactions were worth thousands of billions of đồng (VNĐ1 billion equals US$42,000), police said.

Sixteen people have been charged with organising gambling, and three people for gambling.

The accused set up the website manvip.club and used software called manvip that could be installed on gamblers' mobile phones, according to a police investigation.

Gamblers could then take part in online gambling on their phones. They used real money to buy points which could be changed to real money by agents.

One person in Thanh Hà District worked as a first-level agent for the website, which was operated by people in Hà Nội, police said.

The police are working with other agencies to search for others allegedly involved in the case. — VNS