Inside Asian Gaming

January 2011 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 29 In Focus Vietnam is proposingmore than US$8 billion in casino and hotel investment in a market currently supported by only a fifth of the tourists Macau receives. Asian Coast Development Ltd (ACDL), the developer of the HoTramStrip, will, however, have noted Macau’s success in squeezing a huge amount of revenue out of a statistically miniscule number of high roller customers. In Macau, 71.4% of all revenues for games of fortune (i.e. casino games) in 2010 were supplied by visiting VIP baccarat players, probably numbered in the few thousand. Lloyd Nathan, the CEO of ACDL, is a former President of Global GamingDevelopment for MGM MIRAGE (as the company was known, prior to the name change to MGM Resorts International). He and his management team will undoubtedly have spotted the possibility that Ho Tram could also make a good living from its gaming operation if it focuses first on courting foreign high rollers, second on foreign mass market players, and only third worries about local players if and when they are allowed to play. But factors including government policies on player credit issuance, transport connectivity and tax competitiveness must also be considered when assessing Vietnam’s potential appeal to high rollers. Junket operations can certainly currently be found in at least two of the four casinos open to foreigners—the Royal International Gaming Club in Halong Bay (not far from the proposed integrated resort on Cat Ba Island) and the Lao Cai International Hotel near the border with Laos. The legal status of credit issuance for gambling in Vietnam is not currently clear, though, and may need some regulation before international investors will feel comfortable with the level of regulatory risk that could pose both to their future Vietnamese operations and to their overseas ones. Online gambling marketed to Vietnamese nationals takes place in the country—some of it funded by credit, according to IAG ’s sources—but it’s currently unlicensed and therefore illegal. Vietnam also currently imposes significant entry barriers on many overseas visitors—not the ideal posture for a country wishing to build its foreign tourism industry. According to an online circular issued by the Vietnamese Embassy in the US, travellers from Vietnam’s important regional feeder markets of China (including Hong Kong and Macau), India, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia need a visa unless they are diplomats. Although visas on arrival are available to some of those nationalities, travel experts currently advise that hold ups can occur and advise would-be visitors to get their visa prior to arrival. Ordinary passport holders from Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand are allowed up to 30 days’ stay visa-free. The fact that the MGM Grand Ho Tram over at the Ho Tram Strip is proposing to offer 90 live tables and 500 electronic games in the first phase, due to open in the first quarter of 2013, followed by another 500 electronic games in the second phase, suggests the resort developers are appealing to high rollers and the mass in Stamp duty—many tourists still need a visa to enter Vietnam Nice to meet you—Ho Tram Strip investment certificate ceremony Ho Tram Strip phase one—rendering of interior view Ho Tram Strip phase one—rendering of interior view