The World Cup is about to begin this week and cafés in Hanoi and HCM City have installed big-sized LCD screens, advertising posters and match schedules to prepare for the anticipated business boom, some of it illegal.

For cafés, the FIFA World Cup represents a chance to earn big money from eager football fans who want to put down illegal bets on international football matches.

The owner of a café in HCM City began advertising various soccer betting forms to his regular customers several weeks ago, including fixing the score to the total number of goals and offering betting for 3, 5 or 7 matches at once.

At another HCM City café, the number of customers has risen over the last two weeks since football fans began coming to talk about their favourite teams and players, discuss the upcoming World Cup and how to make successful bets. Hung, the owner, lost nearly 200 million dong betting on the Euro Cup in 2008. “I will try to win this football season,” Hung announced.

He introduced a man named Hoang, who offers a betting service at his café. “Hoang has been working at my café for years every weekend, mainly for matches of C1 Cup. He is always in due!” Hung advertised.

On small ad websites, betting services are also advertised, with titles like “How to Enrich Yourself during the World Cup” and “Cooperation in the World Cup.”

A VNExpress reporter called a phone number advertised on a website for teens entitled “Seeking a Partner for World Cup Business” and spoke with a man who introduced himself as Thanh, a college student in HCM City. Thanh revealed that 4-5 people called him each day to express their willingness to “cooperate.” He is seeking partners to work as intermediaries between bankers and backers. The intermediaries are in charge of seeking backers and collecting money from these people.

“You need to contribute at least 50 million dong to be my partner. I guarantee that you will earn at least 50 million dong after the World Cup,” Thanh promised.

At the same time, many people posted detailed instruction about how to bet online and tricks to win. They also left their contact information on many websites, despite the fact that betting is illegal in Vietnam.

HCM City Police Agency’s Lieutenant Colonel Phan Chi Hung explained that while police forces have broken up many football betting rings, this illegal service still exists because of its huge profits.

“This year we will continue investigating and attacking football betting rings hiding out at cafés,” he confirmed.

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