Tuesday, 23/11/2010 09:44

The doors to casino projects will be opened, finally?

The successive information about the new moves of casino projects recently has raised the question if there are any changes in the policies relating to the sensitive business field. More and more experts believe that the casino business should be legalized in Vietnam.

Moves

In April 2010, ACDL, the investor of Ho Tram casino project, officially appointed Lloyd Nathan, a reputable businessman with experience in Asia and a well known name among the world’s casinos, as the managing director of the project.

The move has immediately caught the public’s attention because the personnel appointment shows how far the implementation of the project has gone. It gives an answer to the previously question, if Ho Tram casino will be a project-on-paper.

In Da Nang City, the Hoang Dat Silver Shores has to change its name, and the word “casino” has been replaced with “club” as requested by management agencies. However, insiders affirm that the nature of the project will never change. Finally, the green light has been turned on for Silver Shores Hoang Dat to resume operation.

Earlier last week, the Hoang Dong casino project in Lang Son province was also announced, though at the press conference, questions about the casino business were ignored.

All gambling activities, including casinos, are considered a kind of “sensitive business” in Vietnam. Under the current rules, this is a conditional business, and in the past very few projects have obtained operation licenses. In general, a casino was only a part of the licensed projects, while no license was granted for projects in which a casino was the only project.

Clients

As gambling is prohibited in Vietnam, the doors of existing casinos are open to foreign clients only. However, only the owners of the casinos know if there are Vietnamese clients.

However, even if Vietnamese clients are not allowed to enter casinos, investors still want to set up casinos in Vietnam, because they believe Vietnam is a market with great potential.

Lam Bao Ky, General Director of Lang Son International Company and an investor of Hoang Dong Casino project, said that the project targets clients from China. “We choose Lang Son to set up the casino, because it is near China and Macau as well,” he said.

The turnover from casinos in Macau was $16 billion in 2009, and Hoang Dong hopes to earn $1.6 billion, or just 1/10 of Macau. However, such a modest figure would still be a good business result for the investor.

While Chinese go to casinos in Macau and hopefully to Lang Son province in the future, Vietnamese people go to Cambodia. Therefore, experts believe that hundreds of millions dollars have been bleeding through the border, when the dollars are brought abroad by gamblers.

More and more experts have voiced their support to the legalization of casinos in Vietnam. Therefore, investors have many reasons to hope that there would be some changes in the policies relating to the casino business. If casinos can be opened to Vietnamese, this will be a very lucrative business for investors.

Policies

Over the last 15 years, since the trial opening of the first casino in Vietnam, Do Son Casino, Vietnam remains cautious when dealing with the issue.

Nguyen Chi Dung, Chair of Ninh Thuan People’s Committee and former employee of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, who has much experience in managing foreign direct investment, affirmed that in the last 15 years there were not many social evils and that the social evils have been controllable.

“We should allow to open casinos in general tourism complexes in Vietnam. This will be a very important measure to develop tourism,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance is collecting opinions on the draft decree on casino management. The compilation of the document brings high hopes to investors.

vietnamnet, vneconomy

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