30 gaming halls, large and small
Union Gaming Asia Securities Asia Ltd. says the Vietnam gaming market may be worth more than $1 billion, with nearly 30 gaming facilities ranging from hotel-based slot parlors to the Grand Ho Tram resort on the southern coast of Vietnam.
“We tallied nearly 400 gaming tables and more than 3,000 slot/ETG seats,” said analyst Grant Govertsen in a recent note. The Vietnamese government does not post revenue data, but Union Gaming said nationwide GGR falls somewhere between $800 million to $1.2 billion.
Three casino resorts are in development in the country, “with at least one more waiting for government approval,” the investment bank stated, including one in the Van Don Special Economic Zone in the north; one in Phu Quoc Island in the south; and one in Hoi An, in the central coastal area. U.S.-based casino operator Hard Rock International also is bidding on a license there, with plans to develop a casino at Laguna L?ng Cô beach resort in Thua Thien Hue Province.
GGRAsia reported that the casinos under construction in Phu Quoc and Van Don will participate in a three-year trial of locals gaming in the country. Presently, only foreigners and holders of international passports may legally gamble in Vietnam; nationals are known to cross the border to Cambodia to play, especially in Bavet City, Svay Rieng Province. A January report in the Cambodian Daily indicated that Cambodian casinos on the Vietnamese border are “already beset by closures as they face the upcoming challenges of competition from across the border and a stricter tax regime at home.”
At the time, Anthony Galliano, CEO of Cambodian Investment Management said that government’s “ill-timed draft law, which would raise minimum capital requirements for casinos, combined with the Vietnamese decree, is the death knell for the already struggling border casinos.”
Analysts suggest if Vietnam’s three-year trial succeeds and is profitable, other casinos will open up to locals. “Details are still quite murky as to the respective scope and timing of the respective IRs” Phu Quoc and Van Don, said Govertsen. “Suffice to say that they have been awarded to local Vietnamese property developers with no gaming experience. Neither of these locations are easily accessible from the major population and wealth centers of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.”
