Vietnam’s oldest casino in the red

Do Son casino in the northern port city of Haiphong

The news was released at a recent meeting on reviewing the five-year implementation of the Resolution of the tenth Central Party Committee meeting on continuing to perfect a socialist-oriented market-based economy.

The report states that Do Son casino, licensed in 1992 as Vietnam’s pilot casino model, has slipped into hardship, as reported by vef.vn. The casino achieved profitability in 1998, which lasted until 2007.

But in 2008 it started seeing losses that amounted to $8 million as of 2012. The casino has paid an average of VND23.5 billion ($1.1 million) in taxes each year.

As of 2013, it employed 417 workers, 394 of whom were Vietnamese and the rest foreigners.

Despite its poor performance in recent years, the casino’s employees still enjoy quite a high rate of pay. Vietnamese managers earn an average of $800 per month while the foreign managers take down around $2,300.

Haiphong management authorities have said that since the casino was opened, it has helped drive tourist numbers.

Do Son beach and Cat Ba are Haiphong’s tourism centres and have seen hundreds of millions of dollars go toward making them tourist hubs of national significance.

According to a National Assembly Finance and Budget Commission report released in February, Ho Tram casino -  a major gambling venue in the country in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province – reported revenues of $5.5 million with 35,877 visitors in just seven months operating. In that time, Ho Tram has already paid more than $2.8 million to the state budget.

The Ministry of Finance's figures show that the now five trial casinos, based in Haiphong, Lao Cai, Danang and Quang Ninh, have posted total revenue of VND930 billion ($44 million).