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She has taken extreme measures to control him: she has told her parents-in-law to make random phone calls to check on him, and her children have installed GPS tracking apps on their father’s phone and car.

On match nights, she sits with him to watch. His bank account is strictly monitored, and he has to explain every single transaction. “I have made it clear that if I catch him betting again, I will file for divorce immediately”, Ha says.

Faced with a similar predicament, Minh Thu, 32, of Hung Yen province, has installed a surveillance camera with audio-recording features in her living room to monitor her husband.

He is a gambling addict who has repeatedly run up hundreds of millions of dong (VND100 million = US$3,803) in debts, even resulting in creditors showing up to vandalize their house during the 2025 Lunar New Year.

Early this year, her parents had to sell a plot of land in their hometown to clear his debts.

Before the 2026 World Cup began, Thu seized his bank cards and has been giving him a daily allowance of VND100,000 for breakfast and fuel.

She also contacted his friends and created a monitoring group with their wives, and even learned gambling jargon like bookmaker, the favorite, over/under, and handicap betting just to decode her husband’s text messages.

“My husband ran up debts for his amusement, but my children and I are the ones bearing the consequences,” she says.

Quoc Thai, her husband, says the whole thing is stifling, but he has no choice but to endure it since he has been the one in the wrong.

He has stopped hanging out and drinking with friends at sports bars and cafes, and faces mockery from them. “Watching football alone is incredibly lonely and strips away all the excitement, but I have to accept it to regain my wife’s trust,” he says ruefully.

Social media platforms are flooded with videos and articles sharing tips on protecting family assets during the tournament, and attract hundreds of thousands of interactions.

The vast majority of comments on them express sympathy for the wives’ actions. The anxiety is well-founded given the pervasiveness of online gambling.

Ministry of Public Security data shows that authorities busted 52 betting rings and arrested 140 suspects during the 2022 World Cup. Since the beginning of the 2026 World Cup, police around the country have dismantled numerous large gambling operations.

On June 22, the Hanoi police busted a ring led by Tran Trung Hieu, indicting four people for organizing gambling to the tune of tens of billions of VND.

Hanoi psychologist Trinh Trung Hoa says financial restrictions, grounding, and cutting off the internet only yield temporary results, and merely drive men to resist and find ways to lie, and erode trust between a couple.

Excessive control creates conflicts in marital life.

Le Ha’s husband says after running up huge debts two years ago, he has learned his lesson and stayed away from gambling to focus on business, but his wife still refuses to trust him. “The restrictions, especially installing a GPS tracker, make me feel insulted. It makes me want to explode and break all my commitments.”

Hoa says both sides should draw clear boundaries for household chores, childcare, and finances. “The essence of preserving a home lies in the negotiation skills, empathy, and self-awareness of two mature adults. Personal passion must absolutely not compromise shared responsibilities,” he emphasized.