Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing gambling in Thailand. The reason I thought of making this video, I was reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya Grapevine: The Chinese are back. Then under the subcategory or subheading, Gambling with the future. Quote: "There is certainly a rear guard action going on to oppose the establishment of legal casinos in Thailand but the backwoodsmen and women will lose out." I don't know if it's backwoodsmen and women, frankly I just think there are folks that kind of enjoy sort of telling people what they can and can't do maybe, and there are folks that don't and also at the same time I think the Government is seeing, maybe gambling could be a source of tax revenue and it may be something to look into. Quoting further: "A Thailand which is desperate to attract the wealthy, has a very liberal marijuana policy and will soon legalize gay civil unions," not a foregone conclusion, this is me talking, not a foregone conclusion on that, although it seems pretty likely. I think at least Civil Union will probably exist in roughly the next 12 to 18 months, or even marriage, this is me quoting again, "or even marriage doesn't sound like the kind of place to block casinos. Attention in Pattaya is centered on where it might be located, likely out of town and not built yet. The Casinos of the 2020s are luxury, five-star developments with hotels, restaurants, malls and lots of non-gambling entertainment." 

Well, as I have said in other videos and as it looks like from the notion of gambling services which was discussed in the context of the Committee that is looking into the possibility of gaming in Thailand, I get it that everybody thinks of Macau and Las Vegas but Las Vegas was built on sawdust joints, small operations that built up over time. Maybe Thailand doesn't necessarily want that model and I can understand why they might not, but as I have discussed in many other videos, if Thailand is truly looking at gambling they really need to be looking at the possibility of many different places having just a little bit of Gambling license to be able to provide a card game or maybe the odd slot machine or some sort of digital, says there could be some kind of digital keno that you can play in bars or something. If they are going to legalize it, I can understand why you would want to have like big casinos maybe one or two, but there is something seriously to be said for lack of a better term kind of spread the wealth around a little bit and allowing smaller venues, small operations to maybe be able to provide some "Gambling Services" which could be taxed as noted in the other videos we have discussed. The Excise Tax Department could be enlisted to go ahead and collect taxes associated with that and I am sure that would add to the overall Revenue here in Thailand and there is a lot of benefit, I think there would be a lot of benefit to allowing again smaller establishments to almost be able to use those gaming services if you will as a kind of draw for otherwise bringing in customers to their place, create kind of a draw, an atmosphere where people want to for example, one thing I remember seeing back in Kansas during the sort of poker "boom" was and I have dealt poker in in the past, and one thing that happened was people would put on these poker tournaments. Generally you couldn't win any money, you won prizes but it drew people into bars and restaurants. People would have these poker tournaments, usually do it once a week, everybody would get together, come in and have this poker tournament and it would kind of feed the bar. It would kind of feed the restaurant in the sense that if you could get 20- 40 people into a place to play in a poker tournament, well they have got to have something to drink and they may want something to eat. These are things to think about. This notion that it is all going to be sort of one monolithic, megalithic huge Casino compound, I get why people like that notion and I do think that the main thrust of it probably should go in that direction, Destination Casinos, but also providing the option for folks a little lower down on the economic strata and being able to move that capital around a little bit, I think it is something that should be seriously considered.