Hong Kong’s billionaire Cheng family have taken over control of a Vietnamese casino resort from the former listed company of imprisoned notorious Macau gaming boss Alvin Chau.

LET Group Holdings, formerly part of Chau’s business empire Suncity Group, is no longer involved in managing the Hoiana Resort near the Vietnamese port city of Da Nang. The Chen family’s main investment company Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd. now oversees the resort’s operations, according to confidential information received by Bloomberg.

The Vietnamese casino resort features 140 casinos and more than 350 of his slot machines, a golf course and luxury hotels under the Chen family’s New World and Rosewood brands. More facilities are under construction as the resort is completed. The total investment is expected to be approximately $4 billion.

A troubled past

Alvin Chau’s group once ran Macau’s largest junket operator, running a lucrative industry that lured high rollers from mainland China with private jets, luxury suites and gambling loans. The sector collapsed after the Chinese government cracked down on fears of capital outflows and possible money laundering.

Chau was arrested for illegal gambling in November 2021 and sentenced to 18 years in prison in Macau earlier this year. The 48-year-old was found guilty in a case that centred on illegal bets exceeding HK$823.7bn (￡85.7bn; $105bn). This was one of the local gaming industry’s biggest criminal cases in years.

Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd.’s takeover of Hoiana comes at a time when many of Macau’s junket operators are increasingly looking to Southeast Asia as a place to do business following tighter regulations and higher taxes at home.

Vietnam has become a top destination because of its lax regulation and the possibility of sharing VIP revenues with casinos, a model that Macau abandoned after the Chinese crackdown. Vietnam’s casinos also rely heavily on foreign giants, as most gambling venues are closed to locals.

Vietnam’s tourism industry is also recovering rapidly, as tourist numbers surged to 66% of 2019 levels in the first six months of 2023. The number of Chinese tourists, who made up almost a third of the domestic segment before the pandemic, is still down, however, due to a lack of international flights.

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