Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing well closing times associated with entertainment venues. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Hua Hin Today, that's huahintoday.com, the article is titled: Cabinet set to consider 4am closing for entertainment venues in Thailand. Quoting directly: "Thailand's Cabinet looks set to consider whether entertainment venues in Thailand should be permitted to stay open until 4am. Speaking on Saturday, (Oct 23rd) Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchatprakarn said the Cabinet will be asked to consider allowing entertainment venues in certain tourism areas to stay open an additional 3 hours. Mr. Phiphat said that three studies carried out by the Tourism and Sports Ministry found that bars, pubs and clubs would increase their income by an average of 40 percent if they were allowed to open until 4am." Yeah, I mean okay the 40% number is some data but obviously they are going to make more money if they are open later. I mean I don't know why you need a study to do that but okay. Quoting further: "Mr. Phiphat said that the issue should go to a public referendum to decide whether or not night spots should be allowed to open until 4am." 

A couple of things here. As we noted in another video within the last couple of months, the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), has already tabled a motion and they operate under a different legal framework than the rest of the country, where they are probably going to go to some sort of 24-hour venue kind of setup. That's what it looks like at least as of the time of this video. Again no one knows what the future holds but it seems logical to presume that yeah we are probably looking at that at least at some point in the Eastern Economic Corridor. Meanwhile, my biggest issue with this, we have discussed this before, they seem to keep talking about this in like a zones related kind of context where certain places can be open till 4, certain places can't. A lot of people have brought up the fact that there is a lot of incongruity there and it can cause real problems because what if somebody owns a bar on this street, they can't open till 4 but these people over here can just because they happen to be on one side of the street or the other, arbitrary lines basically. 

Again I think it probably would be a good thing but I think folks would be well advised to look at this more from the standpoint of just allowing everybody to do it rather than "oh in certain areas". Now I do understand there is zoning restrictions: residential areas, school areas, but again there aren't any real bars there to begin with so if it's a matter of bars being open, just allow it in those areas where there are bars present. That would seem to be logical way to deal with it from my point of view.