With FIFA 2018 comes a great news for Vietnam nationals and it is something they were waiting anxiously since long. While Thailand’s authorities are eagerly trying to curb any illegal betting during the World Cup 2018 and police are even busy to arrest more than 1,000 women for using their social media profiles to promote soccer betting. It is altogether a different way in Vietnam where it uses this opportunity of the soccer event to legalise and regulate the industry. On June 14 Vietnam’s National Assembly approved a new law according to which it that allows locals to bet on soccer matches and other sports events held overseas, the same day when the World Cup 2018 kicked off in Russia.
According to this law this would be first of its kind pilot programme based on a January 2017 decree by the government allowing betting on some sports. Sports authority has already issues a list of soccer matches where locals are allowed to bet and this list includes matches, World Cup, Asian Games, Southeast Asian Games and matches without Vietnamese team participation.
As per a report shared by the Nikkei Asian Review Vietnamese who are known for their love for gambling spend close to $800 million a year on gambling overseas. Their main spend is in mainly in countries Macau, Singapore and Hong Kong. In addition to this Statistics show the Vietnamese spent $13 billion on the state lottery between 2011 and 2015, driving an average 12 per cent gain in the annual revenue of lottery companies over that period. Lottery companies are all state-owned enterprises and are not on the list of companies slated for privatisation.
In Vietnam sports betting was illegal for decades and this prompting many fans to place their wages on international websites. This recent move open gates to Statistics show the Vietnamese spent $13 billion on the state lottery between 2011 and 2015, driving an average 12 per cent gain in the annual revenue of lottery companies over that period. Lottery companies are all state-owned enterprises and are not on the list of companies slated for privatisation.
In the past, Vietnam has been gradually relaxing gambling-related regulations for residents. In 2017, the government announced that it would allow locals to enter domestic casinos – until then open only to foreigners – which paved the way for casino investors to build new facilities. Plans call for the first citizens to be officially allowed to gamble in a casino on the resort island of Phu Quoc from mid-July.
