Tax on Gambling Winnings in Vietnam

Tax on gambling winnings in Vietnam: the 10% rule

If you win a prize in Vietnam, from a lottery ticket to a casino payout, the state takes a flat 10% of the taxable part. The rate is fixed and does not slide with the size of the win: a VND 30 million prize and a VND 3 billion jackpot are taxed at the same 10%¹.

The formula is simple:

What could change is the tax-free slice at the bottom. For most of the past decade, only the part of a prize above VND 10 million has been taxed. A proposal was put forward to raise that threshold to VND 20 million per win, but the Ministry of Finance did not agree, so the threshold remains VND 10 million². So the practical picture today is:

• Win VND 10 million or less on one prize: no personal income tax at all.
• Win more: pay 10% of the amount above VND 10 million.

A worked example from Vietnamese press guidance: a VND 50,000,000 prize gives (50,000,000 - 10,000,000) x 10% = VND 4,000,000 in tax, leaving VND 46,000,000⁶.

The tax applies each time you win, not once a year. Every separate prize is its own taxable event, so two VND 8 million wins in different draws are each below the current threshold and each untaxed, while one VND 30 million win is taxed on the slice above VND 10 million⁷.

There is talk of changing this system further. Press reports describe proposals to tax Vietlott winners on a sliding scale instead¹:

Other proposals would keep the flat rate but move the threshold again⁷. None of this is law yet, so the flat rate with the VND 10 million threshold is what applies when you claim a prize today.

What counts as taxable winnings income

The tax is not just for lottery tickets. Winnings income, in the definition used by Vietnamese tax authorities, covers money and goods received from lottery companies paying prizes and from sellers paying promotions, plus winnings from legal betting, wagering, games and contests⁷. In list form, the taxable categories are⁸:

• Lottery winnings, including Vietlott games and traditional provincial lottery tickets
• Prizes from promotions run by shops and companies
• Winnings from legally permitted betting, such as licensed sports betting on international football matches and horse race wagering
• Casino winnings
• Prizes from games, contests and other forms organized by economic organizations, administrative agencies and others

Prizes can be paid in money, goods or services convertible to money, and the tax applies to the value either way⁹. If you win a physical object, its money value is what gets taxed.

This is why a supermarket sweepstakes prize, a game-show win and a lottery jackpot all sit in the same tax box in Vietnam. The common thread is that you received something of value from an organized game or promotion, and the state takes its share of the part above the threshold.

The tax-free first slice of each win

The threshold is the part that trips people up, so it is worth being precise. The taxable income from a prize is the part of the prize value above the threshold that you receive per winning, regardless of how many times the prize money is paid out to you⁴.

Two things follow from that:

1. The threshold is per win, not per year. Every prize gets its own tax-free slice. A player who wins VND 8 million three times in three different draws owes nothing under the current threshold, because each win is separately under VND 10 million.
2. The threshold is not an expense deduction. You cannot subtract the cost of your tickets, bets or buy-ins from a lottery or betting prize before calculating the tax. For traditional lottery tickets, the taxable amount is the entire prize value above the threshold on one ticket in one draw, with no expenses deducted⁶. For betting and wagering winnings generally, it is the entire prize value above the threshold received by the participant, before deducting any expenses⁴.

A concrete example from a provincial lottery company's own guidance: a Second Prize ticket worth VND 15,000,000 was calculated as 15,000,000 minus 10,000,000 (the tax-free amount) = 5,000,000 taxable, which meant VND 500,000 payable¹⁰.

For scale, when a special prize ticket in the traditional lottery is advertised as VND 2 billion, the figure you actually receive is VND 1.8 billion per ticket after the personal income tax is deducted¹¹.

Multiple prizes in the same draw

What if one ticket, or one player, wins more than once? The rules distinguish two situations.

If an individual wins several prizes in the same draw, the taxable income is calculated on the total value of the prizes³. So winning a VND 15 million prize and a VND 12 million prize in the same draw is treated as VND 27 million for threshold purposes, not as two separate small wins.

If one prize is shared by several winners, the taxable income is divided among the winners, but each person must present legal proof of the split. Without proof, the whole income is counted as belonging to one individual⁴. This matters for group ticket purchases, which are common in Vietnam: if five friends share a winning ticket and want the tax split five ways, they need documentation showing each person's share when they claim.

For traditional lottery tickets specifically, the tax is calculated per ticket in one draw: only the part of each ticket's prize value above the threshold is taxed¹⁰. A player holding several winning tickets in the same draw is taxed on each ticket's own value, while a player winning several prize tiers on one ticket has those combined³.

Who withholds the tax and when it is paid

You do not file this tax yourself in the ordinary case. The payer deducts it before you see the money.

For the traditional lottery, the construction lottery company is responsible for deducting the personal income tax before paying prizes to winners of traditional lottery tickets³. Press guidance puts it plainly: the lottery companies take responsibility for withholding and completing the procedures correctly for the customer before handing over the prize⁶. Tay Ninh's self-selected number lottery rules likewise state that personal income tax on winnings is deducted before payment, per current law¹¹.

Vietlott's prize claim regulations point winners to the same framework, citing Circular No. 111/2013/TT-BTC guiding the Personal Income Tax Law and Decree 65/2013/ND-CP¹².

At casinos, the operator usually withholds tax at source for large prizes¹³. Casino business rules also require that winners be confirmed and paid in full, with the enterprise handling the process¹⁴.

The practical effect: when you claim a big prize, the check or transfer you receive is already net of tax. You sign paperwork at the prize claim counter, the company remits the tax, and you do not need to declare the win again on an annual return. Keep the payment documents anyway, since they are your proof that the tax was settled if the question ever comes up.

One timing note: winning lottery tickets have a claim period, and past it the ticket no longer has prize claim value¹⁵. Since the tax is handled at claim time, missing the claim window means missing both the prize and any question of tax on it.

Visitors, expats and non-residents

The calculation method above applies to both resident individuals and non-resident individuals⁴. In plain terms: a tourist who wins a Vietlott prize, an expat on a work permit and a Vietnamese citizen all pay the same tax on the same taxable slice. There is no separate, higher non-resident rate for prize winnings, and no exemption for foreigners.

What differs for foreign winners is what happens after the tax. Casino business rules state that foreign players and overseas Vietnamese with valid passports may be paid in full and take winnings abroad in foreign currency¹⁴. For licensed international football betting, foreign winners and Vietnamese residing abroad may buy foreign currency at a licensed bank to move the money out⁹.

Players at licensed venues also carry standard obligations regardless of nationality: bring documents proving eligibility, follow the game and house rules, fully meet tax obligations to the state, and keep the ticket or receipt to claim prizes⁹.

Poker tournament winnings

Poker in Vietnam is only licensed in tournament format, where players pay an entry fee (buy-in) that funds organizing costs and prizes, with personal income tax and corporate income tax fully paid by the operator¹⁶. Buy-ins range from a few hundred thousand dong to a few tens of millions of dong¹⁶.

The tax treatment at licensed tournaments is friendlier than the lottery rule, because the buy-in is deducted first. The Asian Poker Tour's Phu Quoc 2024 stop stated that the government tax applies only to net winnings above VND 10 million after deducting the player's total buy-in⁵. Its earlier Da Nang event described the same approach: prizes above VND 10,000,000, less the amount of the player's buy-ins, subject to a government tax of 10%¹⁷.

So if you buy into a tournament for VND 20 million and cash for VND 45 million, the taxable base is your net result, not the gross payout. That is a meaningful difference from the lottery, where ticket costs are never deductible.

If you play on international online poker sites instead, the picture is different. Those operators note that whether poker winnings are taxable depends on your country of residence and advise consulting a tax professional¹⁸. Winnings from unlicensed play inside Vietnam are a different matter altogether, covered below.

What the law does not cover

The winnings tax sits on top of a licensing system, and it only protects activity that is legal in the first place. Vietnam prohibits most forms of gambling, with limited exceptions such as state-run lotteries and licensed casinos for eligible patrons¹⁹. The tax rules described on this page apply to those exceptions: lottery tickets, licensed casinos, licensed poker tournaments and licensed international sports betting.

They do not extend a shield over anything else. Locals are not allowed to gamble online in the country, as online gambling is not regulated for them²⁰. Unlicensed games, from underground xoc dia rings to illegal football betting operations, are outside the tax system entirely, and people found participating in illegal gambling can face heavy fines greater than their total earnings²¹. A tax receipt is not a defense there, because no tax was ever withheld on an illegal payout.

It also helps to know what the winnings tax is not. It is not a general income tax on gambling as a profession in the way some countries treat professional players, and it is not a tax on losing. If you lose money across a year of play, there is no offset against your winnings tax, because each prize is taxed separately at the moment it is paid⁷. And the threshold still sits at VND 10 million, so a VND 15 million win still owes VND 500,000².

For the broader picture of what you can legally play and where, see gambling in Vietnam.