Fierce battles at spring buffalo fighting festival | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

LookAtVietnam - In the warm weather, thousands of visitors flocked to the stadium in Hai Luu commune in the northern province of Vinh Phuc on February 19 to witness the finals of the buffalo fighting festival.

The stadium is packed with tens of thousands of spectators.

The Hai Luu buffalo fighting festival is the oldest of its kind in Vietnam. It is said that

the festival appeared in the 2^nd century B.C, when the Han dynasty invaded

Nam Viet (Vietnam today) of the Trieu Dynasty.

After the Trieu Dynasty collapse, General Lu Gia pulled his troops to Hai Luu.

After each victory, Lu Gia organized buffalo fights as amusement for his soldiers.

After the battles the fighting buffaloes were killed to give a feast to the soldiers.

After Lu Gia died, Hai Luu people worshiped him as the village god and since

then the buffalo fighting festival has been organized in Hai Luu.

The festival is held annually on the 16^th and 17^th of the first lunar month.

Battles are very fierce.

The owner of this buffalo has to cover his eyes to ease the rage of the winner.

Both the winners and the losers are killed for sale on the spot, and sold

for VND500,000 to VND700,000 ($25-35) a kilo.

Source: VNE

Vietnamese people spend $2bil/year on betting: MOF

Vietnamese people spend some $2bil a year on football betting, lottery and gambling, cock and buffalo fighting, lottery games on TV and Internet, according to an official from the Ministry of Finance (MOF). The ministry is planning to legalise the extralegal activities, but with very cautious steps.

Illegal gambling everywhere


In a recent survey, MOF found out that illegal gambling activities are being carried out in public under the mode of game shows. The programmes are organised by radio and television, press agencies and internet service providers. The prizes for the programmes are paid in kind or cash with big value after organisers get big profit from the programmes as clients have to pay SMS fees much higher than normal.

The SMS fees for joining the games may reach VND10-15,000/SMS, while the normal level is just VND400/SMS. The financial scales of the programmes are very big. In the World Cup season, organisers can get the turnover of several hundred million VND a day from the messages.

The activities, according to the Ministry of Finance, are illegal if considering the Commercial Law and Decree 37 guiding the implementation of the law.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, illegal gambling activities began increasing in 1996. People bet tens of billion VND on every football match in World Cup season, Euro or British, German, Italian and Spanish champions’ leagues. In the period of 2001-2005 alone, the police discovered 495 cases of gambling involving 4,187 people, seizing over VND10bil, $250,000 and other assets.

more info -->>VietNamNet - Vietnamese people spend $2bil/year on betting: MOF