TLDR
- Vietnam casinos can verify customers through the VNeID national digital ID app starting November 15.
- The app is an extra option, and operators can still check identity documents instead.
- Businesses must still record all customer details and block ineligible players.
- New rules ban hiring people with uncleared convictions for gambling or loan-sharking offenses.
- Eligible Vietnamese citizens can currently gamble at Corona Resort & Casino and The Grand Ho Tram.
Vietnam will let casinos check customers through VNeID, the country’s national digital identification app, starting November 15. The change gives gaming operators a second way to verify who is entering their venues.
The government issued the amended security and public order rules on October 20, according to its legal information portal. The rules cover casinos, electronic gaming businesses serving foreigners, and betting operators.
How the VNeID Checks Will Work
Under the revised rules, operators can examine a customer’s personal information through VNeID or through identity documents. The app is an added option, not a requirement.
Document checks are not being removed. Businesses can choose which method to use.
Operators must still record every customer’s information in a register. The new digital option does not change that duty.
Businesses must also make sure that customers who do not meet the rules are not allowed to play casino or electronic games. Using VNeID alone does not confirm that a person is eligible to gamble.
The rules treat identity checks, record keeping, and blocking ineligible players as separate requirements. Each one must be met on its own.
Hiring Limits and Local Casino Access
The amendments also ban gaming businesses from hiring people with unexpunged convictions for certain crimes. These include gambling, organizing gambling, arranging gambling, and loan-sharking.
The ban applies only to convictions that have not been cleared from a person’s record. It sits alongside the customer verification change as part of the updated rules.
Casinos and electronic gaming venues serving foreigners must keep hiring at least 30% of their security staff from security service providers. This is not a new rule.
The staffing requirement first appeared in regulations from 2016. It will stay in place when the amended rules take effect.
Eligible Vietnamese citizens can currently gamble at two casinos. These are Corona Resort & Casino on Phu Quoc Island and The Grand Ho Tram.
The two properties operate under different permissions. Corona has permanent approval to admit eligible Vietnamese players.
The Grand Ho Tram operates under a five-year pilot program. It does not have the permanent arrangement that Corona holds.
The government has also approved a five-year local player pilot for the Van Don casino project in Quang Ninh province. That project is still under development.
The Van Don pilot period will begin only once the project receives its casino operating license. Until then, eligible Vietnamese citizens can gamble at Corona and Ho Tram under their current permissions.
The VNeID verification option for casinos, electronic gaming businesses, and betting operators takes effect on November 15.
