A World Poker Tour event scheduled to be held in Hanoi has been cancelled amid reports organisers failed to acquire the necessary permits. Local media outlet, Dan Tri has said the Hanoi Department of Culture and Information and the police have been asked to review the event including if the correct organising procedures were followed and whether or not it was facilitating illegal gambling.
In Vietnam, by law, gambling is illegal for Vietnamese citizens though there are one or two casinos at which exceptions are made. That said, illegal gambling is rife both online and on the streets. With this in mind, the authorities have been considering making some forms of gambling legal, however, it is taking a long time.
For example, Decree 06 was issued in 2017 and outlined the requirements for forming a sports betting company in Vietnam, however, it wasn’t until January 2023 that the first licence to establish a sports betting business was issued. This was to Vietnam Lottery to develop a pilot scheme. This scheme, however, to date has not been forthcoming.
All of that said, poker tournaments in the past have generally been both permitted and common–it’s not clear why this tournament in particular has been singled out.