Another island could also host a casino
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a casino investment plan on Phu Quoc island, according to the Vietnam Investment Review.
The project was approved 10 years after it was first proposed.Huynh Vinh Lac, deputy director at the Office of the Kien Giang Provincial People’s Committee, said a domestic investor will underwrite the $4 billion casino project. The name of the company has not yet been disclosed.
Phu Quoc is “famous as an untouched paradise,” according to the VIR. In 2014, Vietnamese property developer Vingroup opened a 750-room Vinpearl Resort on the island, and may add a marina. The island also is home of a new international airport.
Vietnam’s first casino opened in 1994, and there are now seven casinos and more than 50 electronic gaming halls nationwide. They are open to foreigners only; Vietnamese citizens are banned from betting. The biggest casino in Vietnam is the Grand Ho Tram Strip in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. It has 90 gaming tables and 614 electronic slot machines; an expansion project now under way will add 180 more tables and 2,000 slots.
The government is looking at Van Don Island in the northern province of Quang Ninh as another possible casino location.
