Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance is soliciting feedback from government ministries and the private sector on the draft of new gaming regulations that proposes allowing the country’s citizens to enter and gamble in casinos for the first time.
The draft contains a provision for allowing citizens aged 21 or over to enter casinos subject to conditions that have yet to be fully spelled out but would require that they meet certain personal financial criteria.
Thanh Nien Daily said the decree is being submitted for approval to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who also will select which casinos will be eligible.
Gamblers will be required to present documents proving they are eligible before entering a gaming venue, according to the draft. These documents will include identity cards in the case of locals and passports and visas for foreigners and overseas Vietnamese. It is possible domestic players also will have to pay a Singapore-style entry fee.
Currently, the country’s seven casinos are open only to foreign-passport holders, and various attempts over the last several years to modify the restriction have been unsuccessful in the face of political opposition.
The Vietnamese are passionate gamblers, and thousands flock every day to the casino at NagaWorld in Phnom Penh and to smaller casinos along the Cambodian border, an exodus from which Vietnam derives no taxes or economic benefits. The Communist ruling party, however, has always been ambivalent about the industry, and the country’s first casino, the Do Son, didn’t open until 1996 as part of a pilot program in the northern province of Hai Phong. Quang Ninh, another northern province, has two casinos, in Mong Cai City and Bai Chay. Bac Ninh, Lao Cai, Da Nang and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces each have a casino.
Last June, the party’s Politburo, its top policymaking body, approved a pilot program aimed at opening the domestic market, but only in a special economic zone known as Van Don in Quang Ninh, where an investment consortium is planning a large-scale mixed-use resort with gaming.
The developers of a resort in Phu Quoc also have preliminary permission to include a casino in their project.
The Ba Ria-Vung Tau project, the US$500 million Grand – Ho Tram, has struggled since opening last summer on the South China Sea coast about 70 miles from Ho Chi Minh City and is hoping to be included in the pilot scheme as part of a specially designated Southern development zone.
Three other zones, North, Central Coast and possibly Southwest, are also being considered.
Union Gaming Research Macau said, “In the event that the government moves forward with this legislation we would expect significant interest on the part of the major international IR developers to participate in gaming expansion in Vietnam as it represents one of just a few countries (Japan, South Korea) that have the potential to move the earnings needle for the major IR developers.”
The new regulations also provide for a modest relaxation of the country’s stringent investment requirements, stipulating that investors or managing partners will only be required to demonstrate five years’ experience in gaming instead of the 10 years suggested in an earlier draft.
The US$4 billion investment will be maintained, however, and casinos will be permitted only as part of a “tourism-service-entertainment complex,” according to the draft. It will be up to the prime minister to determine each operator’s gaming allotment based on the scale of the investment, with one table game and 12 machine games for every $20 million, capped at 200 table games and 2,000 machine games. Planning must be in accordance with “socio-economic development, national defense and public security plans of the country,” the ministry said, according to a report in Tuoi Tre News. Casinos also would be prohibited from taking their wares online.
The draft also calls for advertising to be regulated jointly by the Finance Ministry and the ministries of Planning and Investment and the Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The decree could be implemented as early as next year, according to reports.
A majority of lawmakers on the National Assembly’s Standing Committee agreed in April on a loosening of the domestic ban, but under tightly regulated conditions. As Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee Phung Quoc Hien said at the time, “Thorough research is needed before Vietnamese can be allowed into casinos.”
Nguyen Van Hien, chairman of the assembly’s Justice Committee, said, “We need to legalize gambling for our own citizens with foresight, because of the growth of criminal elements around the industry without strict management.”
