Lecturers and other officials from communist Vietnam's Finance Academy were arrested by police for allegedly gambling on cards, a newspaper reported Saturday. The Ministry of Finance academy trains people to work in the government and private financial sector. Police allegedly seized about 30 million dong (1,667 dollars) when they caught eight people playing a card game in the academy parking lot on Wednesday, Thanh Nien newspaper reported.
Nobody at the academy could be reached for comment Saturday. "It hurts to know that lecturers and PhD holders were gambling in an environment of learning," the newspaper quoted Quach Duc Phap, the academy's deputy director, as saying. Police would consider filing gambling charges, the report said, adding that all of the detained staff were released on bail to prepare for the academy's coming entrance examinations. Vietnamese love gambling - on everything from buffalo races to cock-fighting and illegal lotteries - but the practice is outlawed and considered a "social evil."