VietNamNet Bridge – The casinos in Vietnam would target four groups of clients – Chinese, foreign travelers, expatriates and maybe Vietnamese (if the government lifts the bar to Vietnamese in the future). Of these, Chinese players offer the most lucrative opportunities.
The rich neighbors targeted
Analysts said most of the existing casinos have been living on foreign clients, mostly from China.
The casino in Hai Phong City, for example, has 70 percent of clients from China. The small casino in Lao Cai province, with only 8 game tables and 24 rooms, also mainly serves rich gamblers from China, especially from Yunnan province. These special clients may spend 600,000 yuan, or $99,000, on gambling when they go there.
Prof Ha Ton Vinh from California Miramar University, thinks that casino developers will certainly try to attract gamblers from China. In the gambling metropolis of Macau, more than 90 percent of the players are from mainland China. Of this, 70 percent are from Guangdong, 20 percent from Sichuan, 5 percent from Shanghai, while the other 5 percent hail from other countries.
Chinese make up a large proportion of the total revenue of $47 billion earned by the casinos in Macau. The figure is expected to be even higher if a Hong Kong-Macau sea-crossing highway is built, which would allow Chinese to reach Macau in only 45 minutes.
Can the casinos in Vietnam attract Chinese gamblers like Macau can?
Vietnam borders China, and is close to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Some of the existing casinos in Vietnam are located in the Vietnam-China border areas , making access to them easy for Chinese.
“Asian people are very fond of gambling,” Vinh commented, implying that the hobby of Asian people in general and Chinese people in particular is an important factor prompting international casino groups to open casinos in Vietnam.
How to attract rich gamblers?Pham Huyen
Đăng ký: VietNam News
