Vietnamese still barred from entering casinos
The Ministry of Finance (MOF), which is drafting a government decree on casino business management, has once again barred Vietnamese from entry. Only foreigners and Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) would be allowed to enter casinos in Vietnam.
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As such, the arguments about the ‘dollar bleeding’ across the border gates and the clearly visible economic benefits cited by investors and economists could not persuade MOF to open casino doors to Vietnamese.
MOF, while admitting the big economic benefits, was hesitant about activities which may be called ‘gambling’.
The ‘head shaking’ of MOF, the advisory agency to the government, is contrary to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee’s view. At a session in 2014, the then chair of the National Assembly’s Legal Committee Nguyen Van Hien said it was necessary to consider expanding eligibility for casino entry.
He said that though Vietnamese are prohibited to gamble, they still go to casinos in Hong Kong, Cambodia and Singapore.
The then deputy chair of the National Assembly Uong Chu Luu and deputy chair Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, now chair of the National Assembly, also proposed opening casinos to Vietnamese.
They said that if the casinos in Vietnam did not receive Vietnamese, people would go abroad gambling.
Local newspapers have reported various unseemly incidents related to casinos. For example, creditors at a casino in Cambodia cut off the little finger of a 23-year-old from Hanoi, and sent it to Vietnam in a gift box. The man has a 150 million debt hanging over his head.
N.V.D, 41, from Long An province, was beaten to death at New World casino in Cambodia.
Huynh Thi Tuyet N, born in 1966, from Kon Tum province, in her suicide letter, wrote that she killed herself after she lost all of her assets in gambling in Cambodia.
Experts, who lobby for the opening of casinos to Vietnamese, pointed out that if Vietnam continues closing casino doors to Vietnamese, it would lose foreign currencies.
Since Vietnamese are not allowed to go to domestic casinos, they would go abroad to gamble and take foreign currencies.
According to Nguyen Dinh Chuc, deputy head of the Research Institute for Sustainable Development, Vietnamese spend about $250 million every year at casinos in Cambodia.
Meanwhile, the figure, according to Ha Ton Vinh, the author of a book about Vietnam’s casino industry in Vietnam, could be $800 million.
