In Vietnam, Da Nang is the fourth largest city and is the central area that contains a sea port. With the sea port, foreign tourist cruise ships will now have the opportunity to dock their ships and continue to offer gaming. This will be the first time that a city of Vietnam will allow casino cruise ships to continue to operate after docking.

The Da Nang Tourism Department Deputy Directory, Tran Chi Cuong, stated that the restrictions on cruise ships will be lifted this month to help Da Nang attract visitors. After reviewing the legal documents and finding no rules that require foreign ships to close up services during docking, officials have decided to continue to allow the services such as casino gaming to take place to encourage the ships to stay overnight.

The Tien Sa Port of Da Nang is expected to be handling over 110 cruise ships this year and last year saw 1.26 million international tourists last year. These figures showed an increase of 34% for tourism on a year-on-year basis.

The first to take advantage of the new regulations will be Star Cruises, with a ship being operated by Genting Hong Kong Ltd. It has been reported that international cruise ship operators have been requesting for many years to be able to continue to offer casino services while docked in Vietnam ports. But have not been successful.

The intention was so that passengers of the ships would be able to enjoy all entertainment options if they did not choose to disembark from the ship. The main reason behind not allowing the activity was due to Vietnam prohibiting Vietnamese individuals from gambling at home, unless they have a foreign passport.

The activities by the cruise ships will not break this law as any individual who wished to go aboard the cruise ship would need to have been through an immigration process. It is believed that the government of Vietnam will be releasing new rules this year to help promote the gaming industry in the country, with this decision being part of the rule changes.