VIETNAMESE police are widening a probe into a gambling and bank embezzlement racket on the Chinese border that has already driven two bankers to kill themselves.
Police in the border town of Lao Cai are now hunting more corrupt officials from the province's Agriculture Bank, fearing far more than the originally estimated US$280,000 (HK$2.16 million) in government funds and jewellery has been lost.
So far 10 officials apparently addicted to the underground lottery So De have been linked to the craze now sweeping the free-wheeling trading posts of Vietnam's northern border.
One suspect has disappeared and two others - a branch manager and his chief accountant - killed themselves before police could swoop.
Official reports in Vietnam's state press have claimed that bank staff routinely dipped into the bank's vaults over a year to fuel their habits.
The lottery now draws thousands of players daily. Based on the first or last two digits of a daily state draw, it promises 60-to-1 payouts with enticing 100-to-1 odds.
Four senior staff in one jewellery shop owned by the bank blew US$140,000 alone - a fortune in Vietnam's rural areas where many people earn less than 50 cents a day.