Monty's Gaming and Wireless Outlook - Issue 189

You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win. - Ho Chi Minh

Oh dear, Ho Chi Minh, your bookmaking skills may have worked when you booted the French, the Americans, the Russians and the Chinese out of your country but not any longer.

Unfortunately for the Vietnamese, the gambling habit of today's Politburo is less interested in overcoming the odds in battle and more enamoured of winning money on UK Premiership football matches.

Or more to the point, losing money. Bui Tien Dung, the recently sacked Minister of Transport gambled away more than 70% of the country's transport budget by betting huge amounts on Arsenal to win Premiership games. How mad is that? That's like betting a fortune on the Vodafone share price going up.

Apparently, sports betting in Vietnam is the national sport and underlines how the world has gone gambling bonkers. Think Wayne Rooney and his alleged £700,000 debts, even this country's Queen is probably more interested in the 3.15 at Newbury than spending time on her 80th birthday over tea with cucumber sandwich-mincing petitioners.

Naturally, the mobile revolution has helped this trend by allowing punters to bet through their phones when they're miles away from a betting shop, a computer or an opium den. While regulatory issues mean it's not easy for these gamblers to bet anywhere they like, they are ways and means of subverting national legislation.

But should mobile gambling be encouraged? Mmm, tough one. I've been to a few trade events lately and there are some characters there who would not be out of place in a 1920s speakeasy during Probhibtion.

And that is probably the reason it should be encouraged. Prohibition was a prime reason for the rise and rise of gangsters in the US and there is certainly a vacuum in mobile gambling for this type of activity. Better to open it up and let the nice people run the show.

Link all transactions to the electoral roll so children can't play, restrict all bets to a daily limit in the same way banks restrict ATM withdrawals, offer high-quality mobile applications that are fun and market gambling as a service, not a lifestyle.

As a reformed gambler, I speak from experience. One of the many attractions was the secrecy and the seediness of it all and unlike Ho Chi Minh I could never play the odds that well. Saying that, I do have a sneaky feeling Arsenal are going to beat Barcelona in the Champions' League Final. It's just a shame Tien Dung's in jail and he can't win his money back.