Vietnamese legislators pass Step to legalize select sportsbetting

In Vietnam, national legislators have passed a standardised measure which will legalize some sportsbetting from the Southeast Asian country from the very first day of next year.

Based on reports from the Viet Nam News and the Nikkei Asian Review newspapers, yesterday watched 94 percent of the 498 member National Assembly permission to allow sportsbetting as part of the considerably larger Legislation on Sports and Physical Training together with the government of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong currently intending to issue detailed regulations before the end of autumn.

The newspapers reported that the record of sports about which Vietnamese punters may soon be permitted to set wagers is expected to contain non domestic soccer games in addition to dog and horseracing competitions while the state ’s dong is to serve as the official currency for all stakes.

The latest step has moreover been designed to prevent punters from illegally wagering on global sportsbetting sites, which will be a practice regarded as responsible for tens of thousands of dollars leaving the country each year and substantially worsening its current estimated budget shortfall of about $9 billion.

Nikkei Asian Review estimated that Vietnamese gamblers spend about $800 million annually with overseas sportsbetting operators situated mostly in Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong. By contrast, the nation ’s almost 95 million individuals wagered some $13 billion on the national lottery for the five years to 2015 with state-owned operators having moderate year-on-year revenue gains of about 12%.