VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Finance’s draft decree on the management over prize-electronic games services says casinos would be open only to the individuals with foreign passports, though some other government agencies suggested allowing Vietnamese high income earners to enter casinos as well.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF), the compiler of the draft decree, said the draft is now being considered by the government, while the long awaiting legal document is likely to be promulgated in 2012.

The draft decree gives the answer to the most interested question if Vietnamese people are allowed to enter casinos. For the last many years, Vietnam has been insisting on the principle that Vietnamese citizens must not “gamble.”

However, some organizations have recently pointed out that with the ban, the State budget has missed a big source of income, because a lot of Vietnamese people have to go abroad to gamble, suggesting to allow Vietnamese high income earners to go to casinos.

MOF has also admitted that in the digital age and the open-market context, more and more people try to gamble via Internet or go gambling abroad.

The Decision No. 32 of the Prime Minister issued in 2003 stipulates that only foreigners or Vietnamese people settling in foreign countries could go to casinos.

However, in fact, a lot of business establishments, which could not attract foreign travelers to casinos, have admitted Vietnamese people underhand. Therefore, the organizations believe that it would be better to keep casinos open to Vietnamese, because this would help stop the so called “foreign currency bleeding,” since Vietnamese bring foreign currencies abroad to gamble.

However, MOF said it’s still necessary to consider the issue more thoroughly and think of the management methods to minimize the possible consequences, in case Vietnamese are allowed to go to casinos.

MOF, in the draft decree, has suggested maintaining the regulation that only the people with foreign passports can become the players at casinos.

The draft decree clearly points out that prize-electronic games service is a conditional type of business which is not encouraged to develop in Vietnam. Therefore, the enterprises which do this kind of business, would not receive any incentives in taxes or fees.

Regarding the places for setting up casinos, the draft decree does not stipulate that casinos must be isolated and located far away from big residential quarters or urban areas as previously planned.

However, the document says that only five-star (or equal ranking) accommodations for tourists would be licensed to run casinos. Especially, casinos must be separated from other business areas which have their own entrance, camera system, and must not provide food and drink services.

The licensed casinos would be allowed to provide most of the current popular kinds of gambles, such as Bacarat, Blackjack, Roulette, PaiGow, Chinese dice, or slot machine. The kinds of gambles enterprises can provide would be written down in the business certificates, which would be valid for 10 years only.

Enterprises can also import provisioning equipments that serve the games. However, the maximum import volume could be just 10 percent higher than the number of registered tables. The regulation aims to prevent enterprises from illegally expanding the operation scale.

It is quite a surprise to many people that the MOF keeps “flexible” when it does not set limitations on posting ad pieces on mass media.

Regarding the punishment, MOF has suggested the maximum fine of 100 million dong on violations. The fine proves to be too small if compared with the casinos’ revenue of hundreds of billions of dong every year. However, enterprises would also have the license revoked, which would be the biggest threat to them.

Compiled by Kim Chi