Well-prepared to provide exotic conditions that visitors are expecting: luxury, entertainment and gaming
With Macau’s gaming industry failing to recover as quickly as expected, and ever-increasing oversight from Mainland China, what country within Asia offers the best conditions to be able to develop into something akin to the SAR’s glory days as the world emerges from the pandemic?
Although Macau’s scale, the success of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the tumultuous growth within the Philippines, are intimidating, Vietnam appears to offer the ideal combination of factors to steer it towards success.
Due to legislation, this growth will be led by international punters – primarily from China – as only two casinos are allowed to host locals in the country, under stringent conditions and high daily-entry tariffs on local gamblers. International gamblers are still free to place bets in all of the country’s casinos, something that helped keep the operators afloat during the initial stages of the pandemic.
Hoiana Resort – operated by Macau junket giant Suncity is very well-positioned for future growth in Vietnam, says managing partner of iGamiX Management & Consulting Ben Lee, adding: “The infrastructure is there, the room capacity is there. Hoiana is the first five-star in that whole region,” and being the casino within the country that has the greatest potential.
According to Suncity’s CEO Alvin Chau, in a statement earlier this year, Hoiana has, of yet, been unable to achieve the grand opening it was expecting, as the pandemic, “over shrouded the property leaving us no chance to showcase what we had created,”
But while the full show may not yet be on display, a strong potential is lurking, as a focus on the VIP market, mostly from outside but including a small handful of extremely good local VIP players. “Vietnam hasn’t really been able to draw the gambling revenue that Macau, Philippines, or even Singapore has. It has not been a notable destination, until Hoiana came along”, notes Lee.
“Vietnam has a tax structure that incentivizes the casinos to go after the VIPs,” says Lee, noting that it is far below Macau’s tax on VIP play; and even though Vietnam’s overall gaming revenue to follow Macau’s trend and only recover in 2023, or, in the case of luck, in 2022, “there is an expectation that the country could act as a possible escape valve as Macau comes further under heavier Chinese oversight.
Like Macau, Vietnam and China share a border, with one of the nation’s most interesting new casino development areas just kilometres away, in Van Don, where a massive project is currently being constructed in this special economic zone by real estate developers Sun Group, with a plan to develop a mini-resort city, consisting of up to eight casino resorts and even more hotel resorts.
To make this happen the group has not only built a privately owned and managed international airport – Van Don International Airport, but also a highway straight to one of the nation’s primary tourist attractions, Ha Long Bay.
While Suncity’s current property, Hoiana, is far in the south, its new plan to manage a casino within Sun Group’s Van Don property, a bit over a dozen kilometres away from the Chinese border, will allow for its Chinese clients to cross the border to enter the Special Economic Zone without requiring a visa.
Suncity appears to be the first with their foot in the door to capitalize on such an opportunity, under less-stringent economic requirements that hampered other operators, such as Ho Tram; and whether this new growth in Vietnam’s gaming market, likely to be upheld by Chinese punters, could prompt the potential ire of the Chinese authorities, well, it appears to be a matter of scale.
“I don’t think one resort will be enough to tip the scale over into the red zone. I think Vietnam would have to have half a dozen resorts, all generating a huge amount of revenue to garner China’s attention,” closes Lee.
For now, amongst the pandemic, little is to be expected, but as markets and borders reopen, Vietnam certainly appears to be well-prepared to handle an influx, and provide the conditions that visitors are expecting: luxury, entertainment and gaming, with a touch of the exotic.
