Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming May 2014 30 Intriguing, Inscrutable Vietnam A small casino in the north flourishes and a massive one in the south flounders in a market where the potential is vast but a winning investment model remains elusive P rovincial governments across Vietnam are clamoring for casinos at a time when the largest and most elaborate gaming resort in the country, The Grand – Ho Tram near the Mekong Delta on the South China Sea coast, is struggling to generate even a modest return on its US$500 million investment. The National Assembly’s response has been to consider the unprecedented step of formally regulating the industry. The idea is to make the country more comprehensible for big investments like Ho Tram. Yet the rules they are considering, at least as they appear so far, would render it an even tougher place to make money. An ironist’s dream? Not as long as investors worlwide continue to look for new and creative ways to play the Asian tourism boom. China sent more than 80 million travelers into the world last year, and that makes Vietnam an attractive place to think about as a destination, the absence of a destination-scale casino industry notwithtanding. International arrivals to the country rose more than 10% last year to almost 7 million, 1.7 million of them Chinese. It’s why some 10 provinces have applied to the central government this year alone for permission to pursue gaming investments. “They are in a race to earn money from this,” said Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh. Joey and Ben Lim would beg to differ as well. The nephews of Genting Group’s billionaire Chairman Lim Kok Thay recently won an amended investment certificate from Hanoi endorsing a $50 million- plus expansion of their foreigners-only casino in the far north of the The Grand – Ho Tram In Focus