Business Locations for Prize-winning Electronic Games

The Ministry of Finance has recently issued Circular 57/2017/TT-BTC amending and supplementing certain provisions of Circular 11/2014/TT-BTC guiding some provisions stipulated in Decree 86/2013/ND-CP of the Government of Vietnam on the business of prize-winning electronic games for foreigners. This Circular is effective from July 17, 2017.

The amendments and supplements to Circular 11 aim to align with the provisions in Decree 86, which has been amended and supplemented by Decree 175/2016/ND-CP earlier. The notable amendment includes:

Regulations for enterprises that have been granted investment registration certificates or business registration certificates for prize-winning electronic game business activities, or have written permission from a competent authority before February 15, 2017, to continue using old machines until they are replaced with new ones.

Circular 57/2017/TT-BTC (effective from July 17, 2017) repeals Articles 9 and 10 of Circular 11 with the following specifics:

- Regulations on manufacturers, suppliers of prize-winning electronic game machines, and independent organizations testing prize-winning electronic game machines.

- Regulations on technical conditions of prize-winning electronic game machines.

Additionally, the location for operating prize-winning electronic games for foreigners is stipulated as follows: Enterprises operating prize-winning electronic games for foreigners are responsible for setting up the location for conducting prize-winning electronic games in accordance with Decree 86/2013/ND-CP and Decree 175/2016/ND-CP.

Enterprises must arrange electronic devices and a camera system to constantly monitor all activities in the business location (24/24h), ensuring surveillance of the following basic positions: Entry and exit points of the business location; areas where prize-winning electronic game machines are arranged to ensure that players' activities at each machine can be monitored; cashier area, cash counting vault, where cash and token currency are stored.

Images at the positions stipulated in Section 2 of this Article must be fully stored for a minimum period of thirty (30) days from the recording date.

In necessary cases, the storage period can be extended according to the requirements of competent state management agencies.

Enterprises must develop security monitoring and tracking regulations for the business location, clearly stipulating monitored areas, the storage area for files and images, individuals permitted to access the monitoring area.

Enterprises are responsible for providing regulations, documents, files, and images to competent state management agencies during the process of management, monitoring, inspection, and audit.

Source: Viet Nam Moi

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