The Minister of Finance, Hồ Đức Phớc, has recently sent a report to Members of Parliament to serve the question and answer session of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, which will take place on March 18, 2023. The report sent to Members of Parliament refers to improving specific provisions on the conditions for selecting international football betting investors.
Specifically, regarding international football betting, the Government allows a business to operate as a pilot project for a period of 5 years. The Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the relevant ministries and agencies, organizes the selection of this business according to the provisions of the bidding law. The selected enterprise must have a minimum charter capital of 1,000 billion VND and a suitable investment plan for the betting system and business plan in accordance with the law.
The Ministry of Finance also stated that, according to the provisions of the law, businesses operating as pilot projects for international football betting must be selected through bidding. The Bidding Law in 2013 does not have provisions on bidding for selecting investors to implement business investment projects, so it is not possible to organize bidding to select a business. Therefore, from 2017 to 2022, the Ministry of Finance coordinated with the relevant ministries and agencies in reporting to higher-level authorities 5 times about difficulties and drafting a new decree to replace Decree No. 06.
Based on the review of the law, in March 2023, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Finance to complete the decree to replace Decree No. 06 after the Bidding Law (amended) is issued.
Currently, the Ministry is finalizing the draft decree to get opinions from the relevant ministries and agencies to specifically prescribe the specific conditions for bidding to select international football betting investors in order to comply with the legal provisions on investment and new bidding. The Ministry of Finance stated that bidding to select a business to operate as an international football betting investor will be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Bidding Law and the decree on betting business.
As for the progress of horse racing and dog racing betting, from 2017 to now, 7 provinces and cities have proposed the Prime Minister to approve the investment policy for horse racing and dog racing betting investment projects. Currently, the Prime Minister has approved the investment policy for a horse racing project (with betting) in Soc Son district, Hanoi.
However, this project has not been implemented due to difficulties in the capital contribution mechanism from the perspective of Vietnamese investors (Hanoi Tourism General Corporation) and is under the jurisdiction of the Hanoi People’s Committee for settlement. There are still 6 projects that are in the process of seeking approval for investment policies. Therefore, no enterprise has been granted a license to operate horse racing and dog racing betting.
