Vietnam-based real estate firm Vingroup plans to build a 19 trillion dong ($870m) casino resort project in Hai Phong, the third largest city in Vietnam.
The five-year project, which will start this year, will feature a golf course, an entertainment park, an eco-park and a cable car service in an area of more than 870 hectares (2,150 acres) on Vu Yen island. Reports said that the city authorities also want to add a casino, a five-star hotel, and a marina to the project.
The project will only cater to tourists visiting Hai Phong as locals are not permitted to gamble in Vietnam’s casinos. The project is expected to be completed in 2020 and would create thousands of part-time construction jobs and full-time jobs once the casino-resort goes live.
Vingroup has yet to confirm if it would be the project’s sole investor or if it would collaborate with other investors.
Macau has become less attractive to VIPs due to China’s corruption crackdown. Neighboring countries such as Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, South Korea and Cambodia are attempting to pick up the slack, as gamblers from Mainland China have been keen to travel across the border and play high stake games at these casinos.
Cambodia Ministry of Economic and Finance (MEF) announced on Wednesday that gaming tax revenue in the country increased 20% to $12m in the first six months of 2015, compared to $10m over the same period last year.
MEF spokesman Ros Phearun said that the increase in tax revenue is attributable to a greater number of Thai nationals going to Cambodia to gamble. The number of casinos also increased from 57 to 65.
“The amount of casino tax revenue collected is dependent on the situation in the border areas. The proportion [of tax revenues] from the Cambodia-Thailand border areas is large,” said Phearun. “Previously, there were problems along the Cambodia-Thailand border, so nobody came to gamble at the casinos, but currently, the situation is better,” he added, referring to the military takeover of Thailand in May last year.
