Vietnam: Two New Casinos Proposed for Foreigners

Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance is backing proposals by Da Nang City and Khanh Hoa Province to license two new casinos meant exclusively for foreigners.

Prospective casinos would be built at Da Nang City’s entertainment and resort complex Sun World Ba Na Hills, and Khanh Hoa Province’s Hon Tre Island. The two locations have large tourism potential and are especially attractive to foreign visitors.

Da Nang has no major casino yet, while Khanh Hoa has received approval to build a casino and resort complex in KN Paradise in Cam Ranh, and construction is ongoing.

But the ministry refused to back a proposal to build a casino by the central province of Binh Thuan, deeming its tourism potential low and pointing to its lack of port or airport.

The ministry also recommended the extension of a trial programme allowing Vietnamese to gamble at the Phu Quoc Casino until 2024.

With gambling considered a “social evil” in Vietnam, locals have only been allowed to enter the casino since the end of 2018 in a trial programme originally meant to last three years.

But the finance ministry is now seeking to extend it since casinos were hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic in the last two years.