Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming JUly 2015 18 V ietnam claims it wants to enlarge its family of integrated resorts from one to five, but government authorities keep using regulatory birth control to prevent expansion. Despite the contraception efforts, Vietnam’s attractive market continues to draw international suitors for casino licenses, since the government estimates its 90 million citizens spend close to $2 billion on gaming in foreign countries. Citizens must play outside Vietnam thanks to the government’s primary IR prevention method: only foreign passport holders may enter gaming floors within the country, excluding all but a handful of Vietnam’s 90 million people. That bitter pill means the government’s investment requirement of $4 billion—equivalent to the cost of Wynn Cotai, or four times the investment requirement in Manila’s Entertainment City or South Korea’s Incheon Free Economic Zone—for each of its five designated integrated resort sites makes development financially unfeasible, industry experts say. The government is moving toward allowing local play on a limited basis, but even so, $4 billion IRs seem unlikely to bear profits in Vietnam. Vietnam’s government sets policy for and against integrated resorts By Muhammad Cohen Cover Story Tricky Balance