Pilot for Vietnamese players at Phu Quoc casino set to end

The pilot program that allowed Vietnamese citizens to play at the Corona Resort & Casino Phu Quoc in Kien Giang province ends on December 31, 2024, and the casino will stop admitting Vietnamese nationals from 00:00 on January 1, 2025¹.

The operator announced the suspension under Decree 145/2024/ND-CP, which amends Clause 2, Article 12 of Decree 03/2017/ND-CP on casino business². The halt runs until the government issues new rules on whether the pilot continues or ends².

Foreign customers are unaffected. The operator said international guests and partners can keep using casino services at the property². Corona described itself as the first enterprise authorized to pilot Vietnamese citizens playing at a casino³.

The Ministry of Finance has proposed continuing the pilot under a draft decree on casino business, with Vietnamese entry tied to a ticket rather than proof of financial capacity¹. The draft sets the ticket at 2,5 million VND per person per continuous 24 hours, or 50 million VND per person per month, described as about USD 100 and USD 2,000 respectively, and as 2,5 times and 2 times the current levels¹. The ministry said the current income-proving requirements caused paperwork problems for players and operators, and that the ticket level would serve as the financial-capacity test¹. It said the Politburo agreed with the approach and assigned the government to complete the legal framework¹.

Other conditions in the draft¹:

• Players must be at least 21 and have full civil legal capacity
• Family members or the players themselves can ask the casino to bar them
• Vietnamese players may only use Vietnamese dong to buy and redeem the casino's representative currency
• The draft sets a minimum project investment of USD 2 billion
• Casinos must run 24-hour camera surveillance with footage kept at least 180 days
• For casino businesses other than Phu Quoc, the draft keeps a three-year pilot from the date of the eligibility certificate

The operator's own guide states Vietnamese citizens at Phu Quoc pilot casinos pay 1,000,000 VND for 24-hour entry or 25,000,000 VND for a 30-day pass, and that foreigners pay no entry fee at any casino⁴. Those figures differ from the proposed ticket levels in the draft decree¹.

What it means for players

For Vietnamese citizens, the Phu Quoc casino is closed to them from January 1, 2025, and no replacement venue has been named in the sources. The draft decree would restore access if adopted, but at a higher ticket price than the operator's published rates¹. Vietnamese players elsewhere in the country remain covered by the rules in Decree 03/2017, which the draft largely keeps¹. The operator said it will preserve Vietnamese customers' existing benefits under company policy during the suspension².

Foreigners, including expats and visitors, face no change at Phu Quoc: no entry fee, original passport required, minimum age 21, and a smart-casual dress code⁴. Vietnam has 9 licensed land-based casinos plus about 60 e-gaming clubs, and foreigners may play at all licensed casinos⁴.

What happens next

The suspension lasts until the government issues new regulations on continuing or ending the pilot². The draft decree on casino business is out for comment, and the Ministry of Finance has submitted it to the government for completion¹. No date for a decision has been reported.

For entry rules, see Can Vietnamese Citizens Enter a Casino? and Casinos in Vietnam: Who Can Go In. For the wider picture, see Can I Gamble in Vietnam? and Can Foreigners Gamble in Vietnam?.