Vietnam: casinos on conditional list for foreign investment

The Vietnam government has released a conditional list of restricted sectors for foreign investment, which includes casinos.

Vietnam.- A government decree has placed casinos on a conditional list of restricted sectors for foreign investment.

The list includes 59 business sectors including the production, distribution and broadcasting of TV programmes and music, and the extraction and processing of natural resources alongside gambling and casinos.

A second list includes 25 types of business banned for foreign investors. Among them are press activities and information gathering in any form, tourism services (except for inbound tourism services for international visitors) and trading in goods and services subject to state monopoly.

The decree, which has already taken effect, specifies that foreign investors are treated as domestic investors in terms of market entry conditions when investing in business lines that are not mentioned in either of the two lists.

Gambling in Vietnam

Vietnamese citizens are allowed to enter only two of the country’s casinos and must meet strict criteria to do so.

In March, casino operators asked the government to ease the rules on locals entering casinos as a way of boosting revenue lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic and countermeasures. There have also been calls to legalise sports betting.