Vietnam Ministry of Finance to request Corona Casino licence extension
The Ministry of Finance has accepted a request from the provincial authorities of Kien Gang to extend the pilot scheme.
Vietnam.- Vietnam’s finance ministry has said it will make representations to the country’s politburo to extend Corona Casino’s licence until the end of 2024. Provincial authorities in Kien Gang had asked for the casino’s licence to be extended until January 7 2025, along with the pilot scheme that allows locals to gamble.
According to local news outlet VietNamnet, authorities want an extension for the scheme because disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic had made it difficult to assess the merits of the pilot so far.
The scheme was promulgated by the national government in 2017 but only launched in 2019. Corona Resort and Casino opened in January 2019 and was the first casino in Vietnam that allowed locals to gamble.Vietnamese citizens have since spent VND141bn (US$5.9m), accounting for 5 per cent of the casino’s revenue.
An extension to the pilot would also apply to a project at Van Don, near the Chinese border in Quang Ninh province in the northeast of the country. However, that scheme is not yet operational.
In March last year, casino operators asked the government to expand Vietnamese citizens’ access to casinos in major tourist destinations such as Quang Nam and Ba Ria-Vung Tau to help casinos face the loss of revenue from tourists due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, authorities rejected the petition.
