Casinos want the government to allow Vietnamese entry to make up for foreigners’ inability to come to the country due to Covid-19 flight restrictions.
A group of casino owners recently petitioned authorities that their facilities in major travel destinations such as Quang Nam and Ba Ria – Vung Tau should be allowed to take advantage of domestic demand.
Their revenues have plummeted due to the lack of foreign visitors amid flight restrictions, they said.
Only two casinos, one on the southern island of Phu Quoc and the other in Van Don in the northern province of Quang Ninh, are now allowed to admit Vietnamese.
The government has for long treated gambling as a “social evil” and prohibited Vietnamese from entering casinos. In January 2019, it began a three-year trial to open certain casinos to Vietnamese. The program does not specify the list of casinos, and licenses are instead given on a case-by-case basis.
Vietnamese who want to gamble in a casino must be over 21, earn a minimum of VND10 million ($430) a month and have no criminal record or objections from their family.
The entry fee is VND1 million ($43) for a day and VND25 million ($1,000) for a month.
Vietnam has eight casinos which earned total revenues of VND2.5 trillion in 2019, according to Ministry of Finance data.
At Casino Corona in Phu Quoc, the first to allow Vietnamese entry, locals accounted for 45 percent of gamblers in 2019.