Racetrackand casino business in Vietnam: "wild" and "fertile"

It is necessary to manage the racetrack to ensure the common good, including the interests of investors, but the common good of the society must be placed first. Source: The Internet

Colourful

As of March 31st, 2017, betting business activities on such forms as dog racing, horse racing, and international football betting have been formalized when Decree 06/2017/NĐ-CP was newly issued and enacted by the Government. Even so, catching the trend, even before the decree was issued, there were many investors including domestic and foreign investors have raised the issue to catch the opportunity, and in fact, betting business is also done in the pilot form.

According to preliminary statistics, at present, horse racing and dog racing projects with total investment from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars are being planned to build in many localities in the country. Among them, the biggest project of the racecourse in Vietnam is the complex of the international racecourse and sports facilities with investment capital of up to US$ 1.5 billion in Vinh Phuc of the GOMAX I&D Company (Korea).

In Bac Ninh, the Korean Horse Racing Group has also proposed to build a horse riding and amusement park with a total investment capital of US$ 500 million. Besides, in other localities like Ha Noi, Phu Yen, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Binh Duong, Lam Dong, Long An ... there are also some planning racetrack projects such as the Phu Yen racetrack project of the Golden Turf Club Pty. Ltd (Hong Kong) with the invested capital of US$ 100 million, the hotel, trade, entertainment center, horse racing and golf course complexin Soc Son (Hanoi) worth US$ 500 million of the Joint Venture Hanoi Tourism Corporation and Global Consultant Network (Korea), the Dai Nam Multipurpose race cases of Dai Nam Joint Stock Company with investment capital of US$ 100 million etc.

Related to casino investment, most recently, the FLC Group also said that FLC Group and FLC-Faros will invest in the first casino complex for Vietnamese people in Van Don (Quang Ninh). In this list, foreign investors are occupying the majority, besides some silhouettes of domestic enterprises.

Explaining for this bustle, especially when many foreign investors rush into the betting business in Vietnam, apart from profits, the investors, especially foreign investors, see this as an indispensable trend of development, and this sector in Vietnam has the opportunity to develop as Vietnam has a strong integration process with strong increase in the number of international tourists to Vietnam and many Vietnamese themselves also enjoy this activity.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, Vice President of the Vietnam Real Estate Association, said that foreign investors usually have the rich experience and have been successful in many countries. When they came to Vietnam, they found this area very wild, fertile, they surveyed and found that there are quite a lot of investors wanting to develop this type in Vietnam. According to Mr. Thanh, foreign investors who want to invest in this sector in Vietnam also reflect the attractiveness of the Vietnamese market and show positive movements for the economy in attracting foreign investors, creating choices for people in leisure activities.

Encourage joint ventures

According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, the reason why foreign investors want to invest in this field in Vietnam is that this field is completely new so the competition factor in Vietnam is very small. It is easy to dominate the market and maximize profits.

Agreed with this comment, commenting on the fact that there are quite a lot of foreign investors such as Korea, Hong Kong (China) interested in investing in the racecourse, casino in Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Van Toan, an expert in the foreign investment say that these countries are experienced in the field of betting, so when Vietnam opens up to this sector, foreign investors find Vietnam is a good market for investment, so they know sooner or later Vietnam will allow this type of investment and allow Vietnamese people to go to the casino, so they have been and will catch up the early trend.

Thus, in conjunction with Decree 06/2017/NĐ-CP on horse racing, dog racing and international football and Decree 03/2017/NĐ-CP on casino business, hereby, this business field promises to attract many investors to participate. However, the conditions for licensing of betting establishments are not easy, especially for domestic investors.

Regarding invested capital conditions, with the casino type, in order to be approved, enterprises must have a minimum capital of US$ 2 billion. Meanwhile, with the type of horse racing, the owner must have a charter capital of 1,000 billion VND and 300 billion VND for dog racing etc. This is also a big challenge for domestic enterprises when they want to invest in this field. Not to mention, the domestic enterprises with little experience should face many difficulties in the operation work.

Mr. Nguyen Van Toan said that in this game, it is clear that FDI enterprises are more advantageous in terms of capital. Regarding foreign investment attraction in general, which emphasized investment in the field of betting, the expert suggested that there should be certain constraints and barriers for foreign invested enterprises so that they have to enter into joint ventures with domestic enterprises to create favorable condition for Vietnamese enterprises to develop.

Especially in the field of investment in the racecourse, casino, should facilitate the establishment of joint ventures, Vietnamese enterprises can participate by land, facilities, including management, while foreign countries will be strong in technology, finance etc. so it will be much more favorable.

Experts say that allowing investment in betting business can meet social needs while diversifying social richness in some respects, but the point is how to manage it to avoid the risks to society, ensuring common interests, including the interests of investors, but the common good of society must be put on top.