Gaming | Suncity optimistic for Vietnam project

Suncity founder and chairman Alvin Chau

Vietnam – like many other Asian jurisdictions – is on the verge of gambling liberalization, and among the international firms simmering with optimism is Macau’s own junket operator Suncity Group Holdings Ltd.

The VIP facilitator, which owns a one-third stake in an upcoming, USD4-billion development named Hoiana (along with co-investors VinaCapital and Hong Kong-based VMS Investment Group), will bring its expertise in attracting high-roller Chinese gamblers to the project.

Compared with more mature gambling jurisdictions like Macau, Cambodia and the Philippines, Vietnam remains wholly underdeveloped. There are fewer than 10 casinos across the country and only foreign passport holders are permitted to patronize them.

That is about to change with two other projects under development – one in the northern province of Quang Ninh and the other on Phu Quoc island – which will trial a program allowing Vietnamese nationals to gamble for the first time.

As the program is not being piloted in the Hoiana resort, investors will be reliant on tourists – most of them Chinese and lured into the country by Suncity expertise.

Last year, Vietnam welcomed around 4 million Chinese visitors, marking an increase of almost 50 percent from 2016.

And according to Reuters, Suncity executives are optimistic about Hoiana. They told the news agency that government backing and large-scale infrastructure works across the country were both good news for the project.

Wealthy junkets who rode the Macau gambling boom have been looking to expand their operations abroad since the industry-wide recession began in 2014. Macau’s rigid concessionaire laws have proved a barrier to junkets opening their own casinos, leaving the firms as essential but somewhat sidelined market participants.

That may be about to change in the upcoming license negotiations between 2020 and 2022. Union Gaming’s Grant Govertsen told Reuters that Suncity’s one-third stake in Hoiana may position it as a viable license contender.