Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Casinos yet again. We have been discussing this a little bit here recently as this discussion is in Parliament at the moment and we are seeing a lot of political discourse on the whole issue generally; I have made a number of videos on this. For those who are unaware, I do have a background in the gaming industry; I worked in the gaming industry all through Law School. I probably would have remained in the gaming industry had I stayed in the United States. 

So I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Casino report wins Cabinet endorsement. "A special House Committee report on legalizing entertainment complexes with casinos in Thailand was endorsed by the Cabinet on Tuesday. The Ministry of Finance was also assigned to conduct an additional study on the feasibility of the investment which must be done within 30 days." 

So let's be clear, what's going on here. They have endorsed a report, sort of the feasibility study, the impact assessment all of that stuff; we are not at the point now where we have endorsed any legislation which would create this new complex, they are just basically still talking about it is basically the way to look at it. And as you can see, there is then another feasibility of the investment study which has to be done over the course of the next month. So again I don't think you should presume, or anybody watching this should presume that we are going to see casinos up in Thailand even within this year. This could take years. The point I am trying to make with that is we are only at the beginning of this. I suspect there is going to be point-counterpoint with folks as we will get into here in a moment. I have also made it clear that I think there is more than one way to do this and it is being framed as if "okay we will just have one complex and we will put in a casino there, casino area gambling and that is the only way out there". Well as I have said before, I think there are multiple other ways to do this; we have discussed this in the past. That said, it is still evolving so we will deal with it as it comes. That said, quoting further and then it goes on in the article: "The group of academics, mainly from Chulalongkorn University, issued a statement warning that legalizing Casinos in Thailand could do more harm than good." Quoting further: "The academics said they did not agree with the House Committee's claim that legalizing casinos is a part of the government's economic stimulus efforts saying gambling has never been recognized by Economists as a business activity because it does not create any economic products." 

Yeah so this is, this is a really good point. I brought this actually up in the context of so-called Central Bank Digital Currencies, the so-called ‘digital wallet scheme’ here in Thailand as it was originally proposed because there was no economic activity; there was no byproduct of economics being created by that plan. Basically it was just a plan that would inject essentially currency, digital or otherwise, into the economy and then just move goods around and create taxable events. Casinos are similar. It's a very similar thing in many ways from an economic standpoint, it's a bunch of smoke and mirrors without any actual value creation. Now I would argue that maybe a little bit too simplistic point and again my biases may be on display here because again I have worked in the casino industry; I've been in the gaming industry before. There is a value created in the entertainment side. If you look at it as an entertainment enterprise, yes value is created; people come to that place in order to engage specifically in that kind of activity, to be entertained effectively. Now that said, as we have discussed in other videos, there can be all kinds of addictions and vice that comes about as legalized gambling comes up because there are people who really truly can't control themselves when it comes to gambling. So again, you have to look at it in the totality of the circumstances but to say it is completely without economic product, I don't know that that's exactly a correct statement, again if you look at it from an entertainment standpoint. 

But that said, it really doesn't create new value, there isn't any doubt in my mind about that. Yeah it's money just moving across a table and the transactions are then taxed basically, that's the way to look at it. So interesting here. Again I think it is really important to take note of the fact that we are not at the end of the road with regard to this whole gambling thing in Thailand, this whole casino idea and we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as that situation evolves.