Lottery sales up in Vietnam

The country experienced an 8 percent growth in 2016.

Vietnam.- According to local media, lottery sales in Southern Vietnam grew 8.1 percent last year to US$2.9 billion. These numbers do not include sales from the American-style lottery Vietlott, which has been popular in the past few years.

The 21 lottery sell points across the country totaled sales of 856 million lottery tickets in 2016, which is approximately VND 8.8 trillion. Last month, Vietnam’s lottery operators announced that they would be raising their prizes to be able to compete with Vietlott. In January 1, the firms increased the prizes from VND 1.5 billion to VND 2 billion, a 33.3 percent. Whilst the decision was made in October 2016, the Southern Lottery Council decided to wait a few months to make it happen.

In another measures to boost the activity in the zone, they presented a new draft decree that establishes that Vietnamese citizens will be required to accomplish a minimum income level to have the permission to gamble at local casinos. Locals will also need to be at least 21 years old. The legal slot machines installed in casinos nationwide would be modified to offer a payout percentage of 90 percent. Authorised operators would have to obtain the re-certification by the government to prove their slot machines meet the new conditions.