The prospect of losing its key feeder market if Vietnam opens its casino market to domestic play is moving authorities in Cambodia to consider a liberalization scheme that could include online gambling and an end to the country’s own Vietnam-style ban on casino gambling by its citizens.
Tok Kimsay, an adviser to a border casino called Titan King, told The Phnom Penh Post, “Just at Bavet, there are between 500 to 1,000 Vietnamese gamblers coming to play here every day. If their government allows the investors to invest in the casino industry, there will be big trouble for us.”
The country’s largest and most lucrative casino, NagaWorld, which operates as a monopoly in Phnom Penh, generates an estimated 40% of mass-market revenues from Vietnamese players.
Ros Phirun, a spokesman for the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s Gaming and Casino Department, said the government is investigating the potential impact on Cambodia if Vietnam ends its domestic ban.
Legalizing Web gambling is also on the table, he told the Post, which reports that a measure at the draft stage would expand the ministry’s policing and regulatory powers over the sector, which thrives currently as an underground activity.
“We have thought about Vietnam legalising it,” Mr Phirun said. “Gambling nowadays is a worldwide industry, not just in one country or two. It is an international industry. So now we too have to internationalise the gambling industry. But in order to do that, we have to get the laws in Cambodia finished.”
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