According to Vietnamnet, an online news service in Vietnam, the Ministry of Finance (“MOF”) just finalized a new draft on casino business (“New Draft”). You can find the link here (http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/kinh-te/191861/du-21-tuoi–nguoi-viet-duoc-choi-casino-.html). It is not clear whether the Ministry of Finance has submitted the New Draft to the Government for consideration and approval and when this New Draft becomes effective. In addition, the MOF has not yet published the New Draft but we are trying to obtain this New Draft asap.We will keep you posted.
Please note that Vietnamnet only disclosed certain key contents of the New Draft, we state such contents as below:
- In addition to foreigners and Viet-kieu, Vietnamese of 21 years old or more may be eligible to gamble in casinos in Vietnam. Further details and conditions for Vietnamese to gamble will be promulgated in a decision of the Prime Minister.
- The casino investor must has at least 5 year of experience in casino business (instead of 10 year experience in the last draft).
- The registered capital investment for casino business must be at least USD 4 billion and the investor is required to actually “contribute” at least USD2 billion in order to get the license on casino business.
- For each amount of USD20 million of investment capital, the investor may buy and operate 1 table and 10 machines, this means for the registered capital of USD4 billion, the investor can buy and operate 200 tables and 2000 machines.
- The New Decree states 14 prohibited actions but Vietnamnet only gives two examples i.e, online casino through internet or gamble between the players based on the result of games in casino, etc.
- The casino enterprises must comply with regulations on money laundry and report to the MOF for supervision.
- The New Draft states the maximum money penalty is VND200 million approx. USD10,000 and the casino enterprise’s casino license may be withdrawn for maximum period of 18 months if the enterprise repeats the violations.
- The Prime Minister will provide guidelines for the new decree on casino business. The MOF and the Ministry of Planning and Investment will support the Prime Minister on this task.
If you have any question, please contact Oliver Massmann under omassmann@duanemorris.com; Oliver Massmann is the General Director of Duane Morris Vietnam LLC.