In 2010, Genting Malaysia Berhad, a subsidiary of Genting Group (Malaysia) and VinaCapital Group, was very excited when announcing an investment of up to 4 billion USD in the South Hoi An resort project, with one of the highest ratings.
Another giant of the `gambling` industry – Las Vegas Sands at the end of 2012 also said it planned to invest in two complex resorts in Vietnam with a total value of 6 billion USD, but so far there has been no further action.
Many casino projects stand still.
The most talked about today is the 4.2 billion USD Ho Tram Strip project of Asian Coast Development Limited (Canada), although the first phase includes a casino area with 90 card tables and 614 prize-winning electronic game machines.
In addition, a series of other billion-dollar casino projects are also at a standstill: New City invested by New City Group (Brunei) with 4.3 billion USD in Phu Yen is still in the site clearance stage even though it has been completed.
Most recently, Quang Nam province also required VinaCapital to report to Genting’s replacement investor this September, and then decide on the future of the South Hoi An project, said Mr. Do Xuan Dien – Deputy Head of the Area Management Board.
Thus, a series of foreign-invested casino projects still do not have a clear future.
Experts say that with this regulation, investors will have additional barriers when considering investing in building casinos, because the number of international visitors to Vietnam is not as large as neighboring countries and territories such as Macau and Hong Kong (
Economic expert Le Dang Doanh commented that although he is not `interested` in attracting foreign investment from casinos, if it is allowed to do so, there should be adequate policies for this activity.
`Policies related to casinos are conflicting with each other. While there are a large number of Vietnamese people gambling at the border and abroad, it is unmanageable, while domestic gambling is banned. Therefore, a policy is needed.
Huyen Thu