Political intrigue isn’t unique to Vietnam, but it disappointed gaming supporters last week when General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong was re-elected for another five-year term. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was expected to challenge Trong, but now it appears he is setting a course to retirement. Dung was a booster of integrated resorts in the country, as well as permitting locals to gamble.
Union Gaming Group believes that the decision is a negative for gaming in Vietnam.
“We got the sense that there was hope that the reform-minded/pro-business Dung would get the General Secretary chair as this would hasten the liberalization of IR-style gaming in Vietnam, along with the ability to allow locals to gamble. In our view, with Dung now out of the political equation, this represents an incremental negative for IR-style gaming expansion in Vietnam—at least as we think about the 2016 outlook. It would not appear that the incumbent (and now ongoing) General Secretary is in any hurry to liberalize gaming.”
There still might be hope for slot parlors in the country, but it’s still unclear if locals would be able to participate.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese nationals may not be able to play in the country’s legal casinos, but a flourishing underground industry has made it easy for them to get in the game.
According to Al Jazeera, the Ministry of Public Security says from 2000 to 2009 authorities arrested 8,558 sports gamblers and seized almost $95 million in illegal wagers. In one instance in 2006, a senior transportation official was arrested for allegedly gambling $1.8 million in public funds on European football matches.
U.S. casino consultant Stephen J. Karoul says the underground industry could be worth “in the hundreds of millions” of dollars, and has “a much larger client base” than the legal industry.
The Vietnamese government has attempted to curtail internet penetration, reportedly for fear that it could foment unrest. But about 35 percent of the population have online access, higher than Thailand and Indonesia, according to Tech in Asia. Online sports betting is so prevalent that some gaming companies run Vietnamese advertisements during English Premier League matches.
In April 2014, the national assembly proposed a draft decree that would allow state-owned Vietnamese companies to offer horse racing, dog racing and football betting, provided the maximum daily bet per person did not exceed one million dong, or about $US47.
Industry analysts suggest a binding decree could come into effect in the next few years, Al Jazeera reported. But the government remains concerned about gambling, which it considers a “social evil” akin to drug use and prostitution.
