The underground race of casino developers heats up Though the government decree on casinos has not yet been promulgated, the race for operation licenses has heated up in the billion-dollar market.   Prof Ha Ton Vinh said at a conference on investment in the Vietnamese hotel & resort market held days ago in HCM City that his research showed that Vietnam is a very attractive destination for casino developers. Vinh said a series of casino projects located in many provinces from the north to the south are awaiting licenses. Recently, the information that a group of US investors, including Steelman Partners, Cantor Fitzgerald and Weidner Resorts proposed to develop a real estate project capitalized at $4 billion in HCM City has led to the prediction that one casino would be built there. The prediction was based on the fact that most investors in the group are operating in the casino field. Besides, the investment capital of $4 billion which the investors suggested is exactly the required minimum investment capital for investors to run a casino project. Though the government decree on casinos has not yet been promulgated, the race for operation licenses has heated up in the billion-dollar market. However, Steelman Partners, Cantor Fitzgerald and Weidner Resorts are just new names. A lot of other investors have queued up for casino licenses since 2014, when the draft decree allowing Vietnamese to go to licensed casinos was introduced. These include Sun Group and Vingroup, the two largest privately run Vietnamese conglomerates in the real estate sector & tourism. Sun Group, well known for cable car projects, has asked for permission to invest in the casino in Van Don, Quang Ninh province. Since Van Don is a remote area with underdeveloped transport infrastructure, Sun Group will build an airport there to make it easy for players to come to the casino. Meanwhile, a source from the Ministry of Planning and Investment said Vingroup has been preparing for the casino project on Phu Quoc Island for two years. It is highly possible that the project would become operational soon, because Phu Quoc is the first location officially designated to have casino. Besides, there are some other potential investors such as Banyan Tree Holdings from Singapore, the developer of Laguna Lang Co in Thua Thien-Hue province. The group in 2014 asked for permission to build a casino at the resort. Meanwhile, Hung Thinh Real Estate Investment has proposed a casino in Cam Ranh, Khanh Hoa province. If all the proposed projects get licenses, Vietnam would have at least 13 casinos. A survey conducted by VASS (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences) showed that 2/3 of polled people said they would go to casinos if allowed. Thanh Mai, VNN