Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing casinos here in Thailand. I made another video contemporaneously with this one discussing the Eastern Economic Corridor specifically; I'll jump into that in a moment. But I think it's important to note that there has been a real paradigm shift on the issue of casinos here in Thailand; I think that's safe to say. The last year has been a real roller coaster ride on this issue. Quite frankly, over the course of the past 18, 24 months, I would say my position on this went from being sort of ambivalent to kind of vaguely positive on the idea of a casino in Thailand, to really, based on the developments we saw over the course of the past year, especially from what I refer to as the rump Coalition Parliament that we saw in the late summer of last year, I'm at the point where I think the whole issue of casinos could be put on hold for quite a while and everything in Thailand would be fine. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a small excerpt from a recent article in Khao Sod English, that's khaosodenglish.com, the article is titled: Deputy PM says Disneyland Thailand is real, not a dream. Quoting directly: "Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said Thailand has the capacity to develop a Disneyland-scale project in the Eastern Economic Corridor." Now for those who are unaware, the Eastern Economic Corridor here in Thailand is comprised of Rayong, Chonburi and Chachoengsao provinces and there is a new body or board if you will, not dissimilar to the Board of Investment, which oversees certain business concessions that can be granted to businesses doing actual business physically within those three provinces. And those concessions can be rather substantial, including things like major tax holidays, including things like the possibility of even owning land for an enterprise that is operating again within the parameters of the EEC and in certain favoured type of businesses. Also you could be looking at things like work permit concessions etc.

So it's a substantial thing and should not be discounted by foreigners who might be looking to do business here. That said, quoting further: "Insisting the plan is feasible and not a "pipe dream". Phiphat, who oversees the EEC, was responding to skepticism over proposals to bring a Disneyland project to Thailand as part of the Corridor's development strategy. He said the country has sufficient potential to host a world-class theme park and stressed the project would go beyond a single attraction. Under the plan, the development would also include a large concert hall and a world-standard sports stadium with a capacity of at least 80,000 seats to host major international concerts, sporting events and large-scale festivals." Now here is where they specifically get to the point of, quote: "He said the project would not include a casino." I think it's interesting that he specifically went out of his way to mention that, because again, this casino issue has been let's call it politically controversial the last year or so. 

Again my thoughts on this whole thing have changed substantially over the course of the past roughly year and a half. I went from being sort of vaguely positive on the topic to pretty negative on it, and I come from the casino industry, but in the aftermath of what we saw in the final phases of the last Parliament, especially during what I refer to as sort of the rump Coalition phase in the late summer, where it looked to me like they were trying to create a situation where foreigners were going to benefit substantially more greatly from a Casino being put into Thailand than anybody here in Thailand would have, I think at least for the time being, it's a good idea to just put the whole idea on hold and it seems like that's the case; I think that seems to be the kind of prevailing paradigm because I don't see any political Parties running on a platform of, “oh, we need these casinos” or something. It has been an interesting series of events that have led up to this point but here we are.

That being said, even though I don't foresee there being any major changes with regard to policy on casinos here in Thailand, we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.