Ask an operator which Asian country is best for iGaming right now, and most will say the Philippines without hesitation. Ask which country will matter most for the Asia iGaming market 2030 outlook, and the answer gets a lot less certain.
That gap between “best today” and “best for the future” is worth sitting with. Licensing frameworks, payment rails and player bases can all shift within a few years in this region, and the operators who position early tend to be the ones who capture the upside once regulation catches up with demand.
Why Today’s Leader Might Not Be Tomorrow’s Winner
The Philippines earned its position the hard way. PAGCOR’s licensing framework is established, payment infrastructure is mature, and the numbers back it up: the market generated PHP 410.5 billion, or around USD 7.16 billion, in gross gaming revenue in 2024, a 25 percent jump on the year before.
That is a strong base to build on. But a mature market growing at a steady clip is a different opportunity to an emerging market growing from a much smaller starting point. If you are thinking three to five years ahead rather than about next quarter’s revenue, the more interesting question is where the region’s growth curve is about to get steeper, not where it already peaked.
Vietnam: The Market Everyone Is Watching
Vietnam keeps coming up in conversations about where Southeast Asian iGaming goes next, and the underlying numbers explain why. The country’s gaming user base passed 54 million in 2024, and the government has set out an ambition to build a billion-dollar gaming sector by 2030.
Within regional iGaming share estimates, Vietnam has been growing faster than almost anywhere else in Southeast Asia. That is the kind of trajectory that makes operators want to be in the room early, before licensing frameworks tighten around an established set of incumbents.
The Regulatory Gap That Still Exists
Here is the catch, and it is an important one. Vietnam currently prohibits the licensing of online card games and other casino-style formats. What is legally available online is largely limited to simple, casual-style games, not the sportsbook and casino products most operators associate with iGaming.
In practical terms, this means there is no legal framework today for full-scale online betting or casino operations in Vietnam. Anyone eyeing the market now is not setting up an operation, they are building relationships, understanding the regulatory direction of travel, and preparing to move quickly once the framework opens up. That is a very different kind of “setting up” to what an operator would do in the Philippines.
Thailand: Big Ambition, Slower Timeline
Thailand has spent longer than most in the “coming soon” category, and the timeline keeps slipping. The push to licence integrated entertainment resorts under the Entertainment Complex framework has moved back to 2027, and some major international operators have already redirected feasibility work elsewhere, including Vietnam.
Even when Thailand’s framework does land, it is worth being clear about what it covers. As currently drafted, licensees are prohibited from offering gambling through internet-connected systems that allow access from outside the casino premises. In other words, this is shaping up to be a land-based resort story first, not an online iGaming opening. Anyone banking on Thailand as a future online market may be waiting considerably longer than 2027 for that specific door to open.
What Positioning Early Actually Looks Like
For operators and affiliates thinking about the Asia iGaming market 2030 horizon, the practical playbook looks less like “launch now” and more like a staged approach.
- Treat the Philippines as the base: proven licensing, working payment rails, real revenue today.
- Treat Vietnam as the growth bet: build local relationships and payment understanding ahead of any regulatory opening, rather than waiting for a green light that may arrive with little notice.
- Treat Thailand as a land-based opportunity, not an online one, until any future amendment says otherwise.
- Watch payment infrastructure as closely as licensing. Mobile wallets and local payment rails often move faster than the law, and they tend to signal where regulators are heading before the legislation catches up.
The Long Game
None of this is a call to rush into a market before the legal framework supports it. It is a case for treating regulatory change in Asia as a process to track closely rather than a headline to wait for. The operators who understand a market’s direction of travel two or three years out tend to be the ones ready to move the moment the framework catches up with the demand that is already there.
The Philippines will likely remain the safe, proven choice for a while yet. But if the question is genuinely about the future rather than the present, Vietnam is the market worth watching most closely, with Thailand’s resort ambitions a longer-term story running on a separate track entirely.
For more analysis on where the region’s regulation and revenue are heading, explore our ongoing coverage of Asia’s largest and fastest growing iGaming markets, and keep an eye on our reporting as these frameworks develop. Sign up to the Business of iGaming newsletter to get the next update on Vietnam and Thailand’s regulatory progress as soon as it happens.
