According to a report from the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper, Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which runs large-scale gambling properties around the world including in Macau, Singapore and Las Vegas, revealed that it has been in discussions with the Vietnamese government "for many years” and remains hopeful of bringing a casino to the nation’s two largest cities of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
"Our desire to invest and develop an
integrated casino resort in Ho Chi Minh City and/or Hanoi remains unchanged,”
George Tanasijevich, Global Development Managing Director for Las Vegas Sands
Corporation and Chief Executive Officer and President for its Marina Bay Sands
property, told the Vietnam Economic Times.
"We view Vietnam as a market that has a huge upside for business and leisure
tourism. We believe that our meetings, incentives, conventions and
exhibitions-focused business model would be very successful if situated in the
right location in Ho Chi Minh City and/or Hanoi,” Tanasijevich added.
Regarding the Vietnamese government’s recent decision to allow locals to gamble at select casinos, Tanasijevich declared that the move was "an important step in the right direction” but that uncertainty remained due to the fact that the policy is being introduced only as a three-year pilot program.”
"We will closely follow the program and assess our opportunities. If Vietnamese [citizens] are given access to the casino subject to certain restrictions and the project is subject to reasonable investment criteria, tax rates and casino regulation, we would be eager to proceed with the development of an integrated [casino] resort in the country,” Tanasijevich concluded.
As to what any Las Vegas Sands Corporation development in Vietnam would entail, Tanasijevich reportedly explained that the firm would hope to site the multi-billion-dollar venue in a central urban location in order to "maximize the success of such a model as well as fully capture the spill-over benefits on the project’s surrounding businesses” in terms of jobs creation, tourism, economic growth and tax revenues.
Source: GMB / Worldcasinodirectory.com
