{"id":18188,"date":"2021-05-24T14:18:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T14:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=18188"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:18:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:18:30","slug":"vietnam-casinos-request-to-expand-locals-access-goes-unheard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/vietnam-casinos-request-to-expand-locals-access-goes-unheard","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam: casinos’ request to expand locals’ access goes unheard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In March casino operators in Vietnam asked the government to ease the rules on locals entering casinos, but the government has made no response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Vietnam.- In March casino operators<\/a> asked the government to expand Vietnamese citizens’ access to casinos<\/strong> in major tourism destinations such as Quang Nam and Ba Ria-Vung Tau<\/strong> to help casinos face the loss of revenue from tourists owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, two months on the government has not yet responded <\/strong>to casino operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At present, Vietnamese citizens are only permitted to enter two casinos:<\/strong> one on the southern island of Phu Quoc and the other in Van Don, in the northern province of Quang Ninh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government has tight restrictions on who can enter the properties: players must be aged over 21 and earn a minimum of VND$10m (US$430) a month<\/strong>. Players must also have no criminal record and no objections from their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saponti Baroowa<\/strong>, associate director of business intelligence at Dezan Shira & Associates in Ho Chi Minh City, said: “The government\u2019s main concern would be not to expose the local population to potential social risks from gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I do not think there will be a significant shift<\/strong> in government policy in the near term.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to local media, before the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam saw 18 million visitors in 2019<\/strong>, an increase of 16 per cent year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country has great potential appeal for foreign investors but strict government requirements <\/strong>are limiting that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernstein Research analysts said: \u201cIf you have a multi-billion dollar property<\/strong> without a local market there\u2019s no way it works.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March casino operators in Vietnam asked the government to ease the rules on locals entering casinos, but the government has made no response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Vietnamese casino operators have formally requested the government to ease restrictions on local citizen access to casinos, citing significant revenue losses exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on international tourism. Despite the plea to expand market access beyond the two currently permitted venues with stringent entry criteria, the government has not yet responded. Industry analysts and experts suggest a significant policy shift is unlikely in the near term due to governmental concerns over potential social risks and the existing regulatory framework limiting foreign investment appeal.","focusai_entities":"Saponti Baroowa, Dezan Shira & Associates, Bernstein Research","focusai_location":"Vietnam, Quang Nam, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Phu Quoc, Van Don, Quang Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Impact Analysis","query":"What specific economic and social impact assessments has the Vietnamese government conducted to inform its stance on expanding local citizen access to integrated resort casinos, and how do these align with broader national tourism and investment objectives?"},{"label":"Operator Revenue Projections","query":"Given the current restrictions and the lack of government response, what are the revised GGR and NGR projections for existing Vietnamese casino operators, and how are they mitigating the sustained revenue loss from international tourism?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,158,16333],"tags":[23907],"class_list":["post-18188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18188"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18210,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18188\/revisions\/18210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}