Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Poker remaining illegal. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article pickle from the Bangkok Post print edition, the article is titled: Cops raid illegal poker den. Quoting directly: "Chon Buri: 10 people were arrested in a raid on an illegal poker den in Chon Buri, following an investigation into the illegal sale of nitrous oxide, commonly known as "laughing gas".  Pol Maj Gen Songprod Sirisukha, Commander of Immigration Division 3, said the raid followed the recent arrest of a Chinese man identified as Da Hua. Mr. Da Hua was wanted under a Chinese arrest warrant for the illegal sale of nitrous oxide." Quoting further: "Police examined photographs and GPS data from the suspects mobile phone, which led them to a large three-story house which they believe was being used for illegal gambling. Surveillance later confirmed that more than 10 individuals were regularly gathering at the house to play poker, using chips that were exchanged for cash. At about 2.30am on Saturday, a tactical team from the Immigration Police raided the property." Note, that was the Immigration Police. Quoting further: "Authorities arrested nine foreigners - two Finns, two Danes, three Britons, one German, and one Chinese - along with a Thai organiser identified only as Chan. Chan admitted to coordinating the gambling activities. All suspects were charged under the Gambling Act for participating in illegal gambling, while the organiser faced additional charges for facilitating the activity."

Yeah, point being, again Poker remains illegal in Thailand. I've been talking about this a lot over the past year. I was getting really hopeful that things were moving in a positive direction and lo and behold, no that isn't what ended up happening. That said, we may see major changes with respect to this in the aftermath of the upcoming elections with the possibility of a Parliament coming in and maybe possibly promulgating new legislation; I mean it came very close in the last Parliament. As you can tell from my videos, I did not like the iteration of the Gambling Act that we saw mostly because it seemed to only benefit, or seemed to primarily benefit foreigners, primarily it looked me like to the expense - no pun intended - of Thailand. It just wasn't a very good framework to be setting up gaming here in Thailand. But as I noted, Poker might be something that could be legalized, that doesn't quite fit the definition of game of chance, is definitely more of a game of skill. That being said, especially right after he got in Anutin, the now caretaker Prime Minister, then Prime Minister, didn't really see it that way and basically reversed everything theretofore that had happened with regard to Poker. So again, Poker remains illegal.

I didn't make a "foreigners behaving badly" on this because quite frankly with everything that's gone on with the back and forth on Poker, I could see how a reasonable foreigner especially here in Thailand, might not quite understand that that is illegal. That being said, it is. Now one has to wonder, especially where the Immigration Police were called in or came in and actually broke this whole thing up, if this didn't have something of an immigration enforcement momentum behind it, and then it sort of begs the question, well does this mean all these folks that have been cited for it have been deported. My presumption would be yes because that tends to be the way these things work. That being said, it remains to be seen, and we will certainly be keeping people updated on this channel as the situation evolves.