Nearly half of visitors to Phu Quoc casino are Vietnamese

01-10-2020 |  

The Ministry of Finance said that about 45% of casino visitors in Phu Quoc are Vietnamese. Initially, casinio's business has followed the state's management goal of preventing foreign currency bleeding.

Inside Phu Quoc casino – Photo: TT

Specifically, on September 16, responding to Tuoi Tre Online about the casino business when piloting Vietnamese to play, the Ministry of Finance said that the casino in Phu Quoc started its business in January 2019 and allowed vietnamese to play for a period of 3 years.

By the end of 2019, The number of Vietnamese accounted for about 45% of the total number of casino visitors in Phu Quoc.

Revenue from casino business in 2019 reached about VND 896 billion. The amount that the casino in Phu Quoc has paid the state budget is about VND 520 billion.

Coming here, will Vietnam open more casinos to let Vietnamese people play again when the needs of the people are real? The representative of the Ministry of Finance said that decree No. 03/2017 / ND-CP allows the pilot period for Vietnamese to enter the casino is 3 years from the date the first casino business is allowed to pilot.

"After the pilot period (after 2021 – PV), the Government will review, evaluate and decide whether the expansion allows Vietnamese to play casinos or not" – Ministry of Finance information.

Will it be illegal to let Vietnamese people play casinos? The Ministry of Finance believes that the purpose of putting casinos into business is to contribute to meeting the entertainment needs of a part of people with a certain level of income.

Initially, the casino business has followed the state management goal of preventing foreign currency bleeding abroad.

In order to prevent disguised and illegal gambling, many measures must be used from propagating, educating people, checking the management of local governments, police agencies as well as other state management agencies.

Because illegal gambling business takes place in many forms directly or online; simple way of playing and betting, high bet value due to not paying taxes. Therefore, a part of the people who are not knowledgeable about the policy will be easily taken advantage of.

Regarding the number of casinos operating in Vietnam, the Ministry of Finance said that the country currently has more than 10 licensed casino business projects.

Specifically, 7 projects are operating casino business in Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai, Da Nang, Ba Ria – Vung Tau and 1 casino project in Quang Nam only for foreigners to play.

Also implementing decree No. 03 in 2017 piloting Vietnamese to play casinos, 3 projects of integrated service, tourism and entertainment areas with licensed casinos in Thua Thien Hue, Khanh Hoa and Phu Quoc (Kien Giang province). Currently, Phu Quoc casino project has been put into operation from January 2019.

In terms of total revenue from casino business activities increased significantly, as in 2019 reached VND 2,500 billion, up 60% compared to 2018.

The state budget payment amount of this business is VND 1,340 billion, an increase of 49% compared to the previous year.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance has reported to the Prime Minister the report to the Ministry of Politics regarding amendments to the decree on casino business in the direction of removing entanglements, facilitating casino business activities.

In the submission to the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Finance proposes to keep the regulation that the investment capital of the casino project must reach 2 billion USD or more, enterprises can only do casino business when the disbursement capital for casino projects reaches USD 1 billion or more.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance also proposed to particularly difficult areas such as Van Don Economic Zone, Quang Ninh province, if enterprises contribute capital to other projects in Van Don Economic Zone, the disbursement capital of enterprises in infrastructure projects of economic zones is calculated into the rate of disbursement of casino complex capital when granting operation licenses. However, this combined capital ratio does not exceed 25% of the total investment capital of the casino complex project.

The Ministry of Finance also proposes to stipulate that casino investors may only transfer capital contribution to casino projects after 5 years of being granted business eligibility certificates.

By Youth