Foreign casino developers prefer Cambodia to Vietnam

Many famous casino developers have visited Vietnam since 2002 to propose resort projects, but they have not returned. 


Is this because the Vietnamese casino market is not large enough for them to exploit, or do they think Vietnamese would notedit spend money on games like the people in Vladivostok or Phnom Penh – new destinations for investors?

Thirteen years ago, Vietnam was the ‘aiming point’ of Donaco, a multi-national group. It was the group which started the gambling business in Vietnam by setting up Aristo Hotel, a 5-star hotel in Lao Cai province.

After a survey, the group build Aristo with 428 hotel rooms, a casino with 50 tables and 58 machines. 

Under management by Genting Group, every table at Aristo in 2014 had turnover of $5,735. Meanwhile, the casino’s pretax profit increased sharply by 52 percent compared with the year before. 

In 2014, Donaco accounted for 4.59 percent of the investment portfolio of Market Vectors Vietnam Index.

The satisfactory business result has been used by Donaco to develop a larger casino in Cambodia, while the group has not taken further steps in the Vietnamese market. 

This, in analysts’ eyes, is bad news for Vietnam, though Aristo still makes a profit and Donaco said that the gambling industry in Vietnam may have value of $300 million.

While Vietnamese policymakers are still considering possible impact caused by casinos to society, many investment groups have run out of patience and left Vietnam for regional countries where they do not have to spend time on licensing and tax procedures.

In 2013, MGM Resorts from the US decided to give up a project in Ho Tram in Vung Tau City because of the same reason.

In 2014, casinos paid VND336 billion in tax to the state budget, a modest amount of money, if noting that there are more than 200 game tables in six cities and provinces. 

In neighboring Cambodia, there are 75 casinos, most of them located in the Cambodia-Vietnam border area.

Nagaworld, run by Naga Corp, alone had revenue of $400 million in the first nine months of 2015, an increase of 47 percent in comparison with the same period of 2014.

Analysts believe that it is not by chance that 21 percent of the 2.3 million foreign travelers to Cambodia by the end of June 2015 were from Vietnam.

If foreign investment in the casino business increases by about $3 billion compared to the current level, Vietnam’s GDP will rise by 0.58% in the first year, according to research conducted by the Institute for Regional Sustainable Development (IRSD).

NCDT