Vietnam seeks to expand local support for gambling

Vietnam’s recovering tourism and leisure industries may need a boost from the locals for just a little while longer. This is the request Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has placed with the Party Personnel Committee, a government unit that oversees the current pilot program which enables locals to gamble, VietnamNet first reported.

The Ministry is reportedly seeking to extend this program – which is an exemption – through 2024 and also seeking to add two more casinos. Vietnamese gamblers were allowed to play at local casinos as a part of a pilot test back in 2017. The program was first set to run for three years, but with the pandemic arriving and tourism revenue-driving up, the government had to resort to contingencies, including the extension of the program.

This helped Vietnam offset some of the missing revenue, albeit not too much. But there aren’t too many casinos to visit either. Only one is currently running, to name the Corona Resort & Casino in Phu Quoc. The property in Van Don has not yet opened doors, meaning that local gamblers have a rather limited choice.

The proposal though does not simply seek to empower local gamblers but to also scale up the number of casino properties in the country. Vietnam is still running on a rather restricted number of gambling venues, but lawmakers believe there may be a high time to expand. Vietnam, which already enjoys a good tourism status, could take advantage of the fact that casino operations in other countries in the region have suffered.

Tourism has been recovering slowly, though, with the numbers of arriving tourists between January and June, only 7% of the 2019 numbers. Meanwhile, South Korea, Japan, and the special administrative region of Macau have all suffered setbacks in their casino plans. Japan is facing severe local opposition to integrated casino resorts and Macau is experiencing its first full-scale COVID-19 outbreak which has already claimed lives and infected more than 1,000 people.

The Ministry of Finance is confident that Phu Quoc and other casinos can help bolster the government’s purse and ensure that the country’s finances remain strong. According to a breakdown of the numbers at the Phu Quoc gambling property, some 240,560 players played through December 31, 2021. An estimated 65% of those were Vietnamese who lived in the same region as the casino. This resulted in total tax revenue of $74m last year alone.

These numbers are far greater than the 2019 numbers which saw only 105,000 players visit Phu Quoc casino, with only 45% of them being Vietnamese locals.

Image credit: Unsplash.com