Hoiana Resort & Golf wants Vietnamese customers on its casino floor.

That is not especially surprising. What matters is that, for the first time, there is now a clearer route for asking.

Hoiana CEO Alan Teo said last week that parent company Hoi An South Development is actively seeking approval to admit local players. He was also careful about the timetable. Ho Tram spent more than a decade operating before it was finally added to Vietnam’s locals-gaming pilot.

That history matters because Vietnam has not opened casino gambling to its citizens in the conventional sense.

In November 2025, the government named three projects where eligible Vietnamese citizens could gamble: Phu Quoc, Ho Tram and Van Don. Phu Quoc received continuing access, while Ho Tram and the yet-to-open Van Don project were placed under five-year pilots.

Hoiana is not on that list.

That makes its request more interesting than a normal licensing application. It is effectively asking the government to enlarge a deliberately small domestic casino market.

There is a reason operators care.

The best evidence comes from Phu Quoc, the first major test of locals gaming. According to figures from a Ministry of Finance review of the pilot, Vietnamese players accounted for 52% of casino visits over the five-year period through 2024 — but generated 88% of casino revenue.

That is a striking imbalance.

It suggests local access is not simply another source of footfall. For a resort built around a casino, it can materially change the revenue base.

That is particularly relevant to Hoiana.

The central Vietnam resort has already deployed about US$1.4 billion of a registered US$4 billion investment and is pushing ahead with a second phase expected to involve another US$1 billion. Hoiana has more than 1,200 hotel rooms, alongside golf, convention facilities and a large casino operation.

Without local gaming, the casino side of that investment remains dependent on foreign visitation. With it, the resort gains access to a domestic customer pool that Phu Quoc’s experience suggests can be disproportionately valuable.

The difference is substantial.

It would be easy to read the expansion from Phu Quoc to Ho Tram and Van Don as the beginning of broad casino liberalisation.

The government’s own framework suggests something more controlled.

Resolution 8/2025 does not create a general right for Vietnamese adults to enter casinos. It identifies specific projects and keeps the existing eligibility controls in place. Ho Tram gets five years. Van Don gets five years once it is licensed. At the end of those periods, local access stops unless the authorities decide otherwise.

That structure gives the government considerable discretion over where domestic casino demand can be captured.

Local gaming can be permitted where the authorities believe the tourism investment, regulatory controls and economic case justify it, without opening the rest of the casino market.

Hoiana now wants to enter that group.

That creates a more useful question than whether one resort will eventually receive approval.

What criteria are beginning to define which integrated resorts Vietnam is prepared to expose to domestic casino demand?

Phu Quoc, Ho Tram and Van Don are not small standalone gaming halls. They are large tourism developments carrying hotels, entertainment and substantial capital commitments.

Hoiana fits that profile closely.

Its application therefore becomes a useful test of whether the current three-project framework remains exceptional or is gradually developing into a broader policy for selected integrated resorts.

If Hoiana is eventually added, Vietnam still will not have an open locals casino market.

But it would strengthen the case that domestic casino access is becoming part of the country’s integrated-resort policy rather than a single isolated experiment.

We track how money, players and regulation move across East Asia's gaming markets — including the parts that don't show up in the official figures. If that's your world, reply. The best context usually comes from comparing notes.

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East Asia Reports
Web: eastasiareports.com · Email: [email protected]
Author — Adrià Mas Rodríguez