On November 26th, the Government issued Resolution 307 allowing eligible Vietnamese citizens to gamble at certain casino business projects, effective from the date of issuance.
The government allows eligible Vietnamese citizens to gamble at certain casino projects (Illustrative image: AI)
Accordingly, Resolution 307 allows eligible Vietnamese citizens to gamble at the Phu Quoc casino project (An Giang province). At the Ho Tram casino project (Ho Chi Minh City), a pilot program allowing eligible Vietnamese citizens to gamble will be implemented for a period of 5 years, starting from November 26th.
At the Van Don casino project (Quang Ninh province), a pilot program allows eligible Vietnamese citizens to gamble in the casino for a period of 5 years, starting from the date of issuance of the Casino Business Eligibility Certificate.
The management of eligible Vietnamese citizens entering casinos, conducting business, and managing casino business operations at casino projects as stipulated in Article 3 of this Resolution shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of Government Decree No. 03/2017/ND-CP on casino business or any amending, supplementing, or replacing documents (if any).
Upon completion of the pilot period, the aforementioned casino project will cease allowing eligible Vietnamese citizens to gamble until a conclusion is reached by the competent authority in accordance with the law.
Recently, the Ministry of Finance has been finalizing a draft decree to replace Decree No. 03/2017/ND-CP on casino business. Specifically, Vietnamese citizens wishing to enter casinos must be at least 21 years old, possess full civil capacity, and purchase a ticket to participate. The proposed ticket price is 2.5 million VND for 24 consecutive hours or 50 million VND if purchasing a monthly pass.
Furthermore, players are only allowed to use Vietnamese Dong to exchange for the casino's designated currency. If they don't use up all their winnings or win a prize, they can exchange the remaining currency back into Vietnamese Dong.
According to the Ministry of Finance, maintaining the pilot program allowing Vietnamese citizens to enter casinos has not created any major problems and has helped to improve management efficiency.
However, the requirement for players to prove their financial capacity is causing difficulties. Many tourists, even those with sufficient financial means, are unable to prepare the necessary documents in time for their trip, leading to missed opportunities to play legally domestically, while it is much easier to do so abroad.
Based on that reality, the Ministry of Finance proposed raising the entrance fee as an indirect way to assess the financial capacity of players, instead of requiring them to prove it with documents as before.