Vietnamese Prime Minister wants tighter gambling control

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has been charged with conducting a campaign to inspect licensed electronic gaming centres nationwide, and report the results to the Prime Minister by the third quarter of this year.

Prime Minister has asked authorities to inspect hotels and tourist facilities that operate slot machines and electronic gambling games for foreigners after locals were arrested illegally gambling last week.

In a document issued by the Government Office last Friday, Dung ordered relevant ministries, the National Administration for Tourism and provincial authorities to inspect all licensed casinos.

Though the word casino may be a stretch - most legal gambling areas consist of one or two rooms of computer games without cards or chips, though sometimes with a roulette wheel and live dealers - Viet Nam allows foreigners with valid passports to gamble but does not allow Vietnamese to partake.

The inspections come after police raided five casinos at hotels in HCM City and Vung Tau in late May, catching 81 locals gambling illegally.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment and provincial authorities will consider withdrawing licenses that had been granted to such violators, according to the government office. The inspection results must be reported to the Prime Minister in the third quarter of this year, it said.

The MPI has been urged to submit to the government an amendment for regulations on the "electronic games" for foreigners. So far, some 30 licenses have been granted to luxury hotels and tourism-related facilities to operate slot machines on their premises.