Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about Poker in Thailand. For those who are unaware, yes gaming, gambling is illegal in Thailand in virtually every way that counts for most folks. Now there are exceptions as we have discussed in other videos, horse racing for example, lottery is another example here in Thailand that does have legal gaming in that context. Meanwhile the point of this video is to talk about Poker specifically. It's my understanding that as the present legislation on gambling sits in Thailand, Poker sits on the list of games that are highly restricted. Like there is like a two-tier system; there's a system where you can get like limited licenses for limited durations for certain games and then there's the type where "no, no you need like a big license." You have to go through a real rigmarole and effectively you are not going to get it. They are not issuing those licenses in any kind of routine manner. 

The point of the video is I am making this at a time when the dissolution of Parliament appears to be imminent. I am betting by the time this video goes up, betting no pun intended, but I am thinking by the time this video goes up, we will actually see the Parliament be dissolved and so we are now sort of in the political season if you will in Thailand over here. Yeah my point in making a case for poker is one) Poker is not gambling in the sense that Blackjack is gambling or Roulette is gambling, or Craps is gambling or Slot Machines are gambling. Poker is a skill game. There's a reason you see the same roughly two dozen, some mix of roughly the same two dozen people on the final tables of the major poker tournaments around the world all the time. They always seem to be coming back. It's not because they are the luckiest people on earth, it's because they are highly skilled at playing Poker. I would even go so far as a buddy of mine and I used to have this like running joke "is it a sport? is it a game? what is it?" And it was always this kind of nebulous thing. There were certain things where “is being a jockey in horse racing a sport?” He said for years "no, that's not a sport, the horse is doing the work." He eventually relented and said yeah, No, I see how that is kind of a sport. The jockey, the human is doing something that has physical connotations, it has physical attributes, you have to have physical skill to be a jockey. Then meanwhile like NASCAR, we had a big back and forth, is NASCAR a sport or not or is it just a game or whatever it is? I kind of agreed with him, he said look the machine is doing all the work, yes you got to drive; there is a lot to that. I think there is a solid argument to be made and I can totally understand the argument to being a NASCAR driver. Those guys get dehydrated, it is insanely hot, it is crazy and they are just doing insane speeds. I think you could make the argument it is a sport, at the same time I understood his argument that it wasn't. In the case of Poker, I don't know if you can argue it's a sport in the sense but I mean hell now they think games online, playing video games online is e-sport so if you have got e-sports then I think Poker is definitely a sport if that is a sport. So my point being though is Poker is fundamentally a skill game and it would be possible and I think it would be highly advisable and a good idea for Thailand to think about legalizing just Poker Rooms. Rooms that only specialize in Poker and you can legally define Poker in such a way that "no people are not going to be able to wiggle around and essentially just have de facto casinos." No because again and a big difference between Poker and other games in a casino is Poker is not playing against the House. The players are playing against each other. The only thing the House provides is a dealer. Generally they take a fee for the services they provide in spreading the game etc. I would make a strong argument, I've talked about this in videos before where Thailand is thinking about legalizing gambling; they have had a Commission that has gone through and looked at it; I think there is a lot of support for it; I think there's also a lot of criticism of it. I can totally understand Thailand keeping it illegal forever by the way, I see the argument there and quite honestly I could understand it if they did that. In many ways it might not be a bad idea but if we are going to go down the legalization route, I think it would be a good idea if folks at least looked at the notion of Card Rooms, Poker Rooms specifically, Poker Rooms that just catered to people that want to play Poker. And again as I discussed in other videos, that might be a way of kind of spreading out that gambling wealth so to speak rather than just having one sinkhole in the form of a Casino. It would have to be highly regulated obviously, no doubt about that. No children could be present on those premises; you couldn't have people under the age of 20 there, I get all that. In fact that is no problem at all. All gambling is regulated in the United States. Full disclosure, I used to work in the gaming industry when I was going through law school and absolutely, we all agreed that you had to be over 21 in that jurisdiction in order to both come into the casino and to play in the casino. So the point I am trying to make with this video is I think there is something to be said for the notion just specifically of looking at the legalization of Poker and Poker Rooms here in the Kingdom of Thailand.