HANOI: Police in Vietnam have arrested at least 100 gamblers, many of them foreigners, in three major hotels in Ho Chi Minh City and confiscated millions of dollars, state media said Sunday.

In raids reported to be the biggest ever in the nation's southern business hub, police swooped on two upmarket hotels and another smaller one, according to a report on the Thanh Nien online newspaper.

Cash worth several million dollars was collected from gambling machines in the hotels, the paper said.

Police refused to comment and no details on the nationalities of arrested foreigners were available.

Gambling is forbidden in communist Vietnam but is widespread nevertheless.

Foreigners, for their part, can bet in the country's only official casino - which is closed to Vietnamese - in the northern port city of Haiphong. - AFP/yy