Vietnam Set to Lift Casino Ban for Locals

After years of debate, it looks like Vietnam is on the path to removing casino restrictions for locals, pending approval from Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. 

Thanh Nien reports that the Ministry of Finance has submitted a draft decree which would allow Vietnamese citizens over 21-years-old and that meet certain background and financial criteria, to bet in the country’s casinos.

Currently, Vietnam's casinos are only open to foreign passport holders.

The draft decree also proposes easing requirements for casino investors in Vietnam and recommends that the ban on online gambling services remains intact.

Plans for large-scale casinos have been in the works for years but until locals are allowed to join in, international investors will view the market as "a future development opportunity,” according to a report from Reuters earlier this year.

Vietnamese gamblers often travel to neighboring Cambodia’s casinos to place their bets. Beyond the reports of violent debt collection practices in Cambodia (i.e. here’s your son’s finger, pay), the Vietnamese government and wealthy business people are acutely aware that they’re missing out on huge tax revenues and profits:

“Augustine Ha Ton Vinh, an academic who says he is advising the government on liberalizing Vietnam's gaming industry, estimates the country is losing as much as $800 million a year in tax revenue from Vietnamese who gamble in Cambodia.”

Not everyone is on board with changing the rules, however.

Nguyen Mai, former deputy minister of Planning and Investment said that lifting the ban would be “a disaster for the Vietnamese people.”

“We already have too many social evils. We should avoid this plan at all costs,” he added.

Reuters interviewed a Vietnamese gambler about his opinion on legalizing gambling for locals:

"It'll be a lot more convenient, it'll save me time and money," said one gambler, munching on a baguette and sipping sweet coffee while waiting for his car ride to Cambodia. "It doesn't matter where I gamble, I always seem to lose anyway."

Is this a bet Vietnam should make? 

[Photo via TheILR]