Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, I'm asking the question basically, "is Thailand's economy bad? is it not bad?" I'm really kind of getting tired of the economy being politicized. Let me get into it. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Sleepy economy no threat to Thai casinos. Quoting directly: "The global economic slowdown is unlikely to affect investment in the much-touted entertainment complex project because it is a long-term investment, says Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat." Now I don't remember who's who here, but was this one of the guys or was this the person that thought more inflation was good? Just, I'm curious. 

In any event, quoting further: "Speaking after the Cabinet approved the draft entertainment complex Bill legalizing Casino Gambling on Thursday" - let's be clear. That's a Cabinet procedure to now send to Parliament, okay. Again this gets written about as if it creates a foregone conclusion. It doesn't. We are going through the legislative process; we haven't passed through anything yet - "Mr. Julapun said the sluggish global economy will not impact this project as there is a significant amount of capital worldwide ready to be invested. He said since the government introduced the idea of establishing an entertainment complex, several investors expressed an interest in the project, viewing Thailand as a more attractive destination for casino gambling than many other countries, including Japan." Well how about they stop interacting with our Parliament in such a goofy way. Can we make this a little more transparent one, and two, going back, is the economy bad or not? You have said it was terrible and that's why we needed digital money, which they now say didn't stimulate anything, which that was the whole sort of “reason” for it which it didn't do that, it's still going down the track. It's like a runaway train this notion of digital money.

So the economy was bad then but now it's not so bad, it's “sleepy”, whatever that means, and then oh there's going to be a bunch of outside investment. Do we know what we are leaving on the table? That's the question I have for all a Thailand right now. While there's all this push to push this thing through, has everybody sat down and seen what we're giving up, because I'm here to tell you, when it comes to gambling law, gaming law, you don't know what you don't know. There is tons of things that can be given away out of hand that you never knew you were giving up, especially in negotiations with multinational corporations whose sole business is to deal with Gambling. And let's be very clear, they came into that business because they were really, really good at it, and they came up against some of the most ruthless humans on the face of the planet to get where they are, okay. They're not sweetness and light; they're going to take everything that they can take off the table, and we may not even - I'm not saying we don't, I don't know. I don't know where the influence or the impetus behind the promulgation of this Bill came from, I don't know who drafted it, I don't know how it's changed. I would like to, but we'll see about that. I mean maybe I can do my own research, figure that out. But that, said the people that are on the other end of this, these are people that know the ins and outs from Jump Street. Thailand needs to be circumspect about what we give up under this legalization. This isn't going to operate the way Cannabis operated, in my opinion, this is my personal belief here. It won't operate that way. It's not going to operate, "well if it kind of doesn't work one way, it'll kind of just end up benefiting the public, or the whole sector is a business hole; rising tide raises all ships. No, this is zero sum, and this is against market participants who, their sole purpose, modus operandi, raison d'être is to make money off gambling. They don't care about the people necessarily that that could hurt. And I'm not casting aspersions at anybody in particular, but I have seen the protocols for dealing with people that have problems with gambling. And believe me, the fallout from a problem gambler, it's not like having a drunk around. It's not even like having a drug addict in the family, especially in a legalized gambling environment. This is a person that can wipe out your financial position in a day. We need to think about this okay.

And I still pose the question, is Thailand's economy is that bad? and is it so bad that we need to rush this through? and do we really need to rush it through in the week after a major natural disaster here in Thailand? Just questions, food for thought. That said, we'll certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.