Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the possibility of legalization of Casinos here in Thailand. There has been a lot of talk about this; it seems to be coming more and more to the forefront, coming to a head if you will in the past roughly year, but there has been a lot of talk about this. If you go back and look at it, they have been talking about this for some 7, 8, 9 years now and in fact, if you go back even 20 years there has been a lot of talk about it, but it sort of always comes up, falls by the wayside, then goes away. It's looking like this Government may actually push through legislation that will actually ultimately see some kind of Casino Complex here in Thailand. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Government bets on casinos. Quoting directly: "The Cabinet on Monday approved in principle a Bill paving the way for setting up entertainment complexes and allowing Casinos to operate legally within them." A couple of things just from that line alone. First off, they approved "in principle". They have not promulgated new legislation, they have just approved in principle the possibility of this becoming the law, so that's a good thing to keep an eye on. Notwithstanding the fact that facts may be moving the other way on a lot of things here recently, I have been very disappointed with the media insofar as they have been pushing things as a foregone conclusion - most notably things surrounding the OECD here in Thailand - which are not in fact a foregone conclusion. Good to see the reporting on this is at least accurate insofar as the verbiage saying that look this is again a proposal, they have now agreed in principle to a possible law, but an actual law remains to be seen. That said, quoting further: "Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said the Entertainment Complex Bill, proposed by the Finance Ministry, would promote tourism and investments in accordance with the Government's policy while tackling widespread illegal gambling." Well of course legalization is going to tackle widespread illegal gambling, because like we saw with Cannabis legalization, people that were doing it illegally one day, started doing it legally the next day. So yeah, of course it tackles that.

That has never been the problem with gambling though. As I have discussed in other videos, I have worked in the casino industry; I've worked in the gaming industry for a number of years. I put myself through law school primarily dealing poker. Now the only reason I bring that up is because look, there are upsides and downsides to gambling and illegal versus legal gambling I don't even really think should be the debate. There are going to be people who want to gamble, whether or not it's legal or not, but there are a large number of people who will not gamble when it is illegal. So, for that reason yeah it can cause other problems including societal problems, but you just don't have legal problems because the things now been legalized. And I'm not saying this is good, bad, or different. In my opinion, I am rather ambivalent about Casino legalization here in Thailand because I have seen both sides of the coin; I have seen the benefits, so-called in some cases, and I have also seen the downsides of it. I've seen the societal drain you see in terms of the resources that people spend in these complexes, effectively waste sometimes and look I will just be candid, in my opinion gambling is probably the worst vice and thank God I don't have that particular vice - I would argue because as my granddaddy once told me, he said, 'if you ever have a vice, turn it into a vocation.' I did that and gambling is just not something that particularly fascinates me. But unlike other vices be it alcohol, be it even Cannabis, be it any kind of illegal drug, be it any other type of vices, I don't know which one - womanizing, these types of things - the difference with gambling is if you really are an addicted gambler and you gamble too much and you go broke, you can drag your whole family with you. That's the problem that I have with it. You can really detrimentally financially impact those around you, and when looking at legalization, I truly, truly hope authorities here in Thailand really take this stuff into consideration. Forget the illegal - legal stuff, that's all just a matter of which side of the ledger we are putting you on in terms of is this is a criminal activity or a non-criminal activity, and beyond even that when you get into the whole malum in se versus malum prohibitum, gambling in and of himself is not evil inherently but yes it does cause societal problems, so they regulate it. I don't mind people gambling per se, but it's good to bear in mind, again from a purely sort of social planning, sort of sociological standpoint, it's good to realize that this has a tremendous negative impact on people in the society; again, forget legal versus illegal. Also, it can have a tremendous negative impact on people ancillary to the person who has the problem with gambling. The reason I bring this up is again, I've said this before and I'm saying it again now, I really hope Authorities in Thailand seriously consider digital options for creating a bet limit on locals. What are we talking about here? Well for example, I very briefly worked in the casinos in Kansas City back on, I think they are on the Missouri side of border technically, but these Casinos are “Riverboat” Casinos; they were technically on the river. They had their own rules with regard to so-called bet limits within those Casinos. And what are we talking about? Well at the time I worked there, you could only buy in for $500 an hour and you had a card, you had a player's card that you had to swipe when you went to any table, and they were keeping track to make sure you didn't buy in over that amount. Now you can play as much of that 500 as you wanted but you could only buy in to that amount.

The point I am trying to make is folks, if this thing goes legal, Thailand needs to seriously, seriously, consider placing a bet limit or a buy-in limit on local Thai nationals because that will keep locals from buying in too much, so they would be precluded from gambling too much in the Casinos. Meanwhile foreigners, gamble whatever you want. Frankly the Thai nationalist in me doesn't really care; that's your problem. You come in here, you want to dump money in a Thai Casino, great, but for local Thais, I really, really hope that authorities and policy makers look at the possibility of a bet limit or a buy-in limit at these facilities on local Thai nationals. I know that that sounds negative for Thais to a certain extent, "well why do foreigners get to buy in for more?" - well I've never agreed with the notion of saying "oh locals can't come into the casino", I know like Korea does it like that I think, I think Vietnam did that for a while, I think technically Cambodia still does that where local nationals can't play at the casino. That's never going to jive with Thailand, myself included think hey, it's in Thailand, Thais should be able to go. You don't get to preclude Thais from going to places in their own country. Again, I understand the argument for not letting in local nationals to a casino but there's a more elegant way and frankly a better way to do it, because again, I don't agree with the notion of not allowing Thais in a certain place so you need to let them in, but sort of the way to square the circle is with a buy-in limit for locals. That's it. If you come in, you present your Thai ID - which you are going to have to do to prove you are of age to get on the casino floor - basically they just put your Thai ID in the system, give you a player's card and on that card there's a limit - you can't buy in for over X amount of Baht - and yeah it's going to be lower limit play for locals compared to foreigners, but I think that ends up in a best of all worlds scenario. 

That said, quoting further: "She insisted the Council of State (CoS), the Government's legal advisory body, did not oppose the Bill but had suggested some revisions to reflect the Government's policy on tourism." Quoting further: "Last month the Stop Gambling Foundation criticised tales of the Bill as "diverging significantly" from the initial Singapore model." Well first of all, I am sick and tired of modeling everything on Singapore. Thailand is not Singapore. We are not a city state, we are a nation, it's big here. So first of all, like why do we constantly look to Singapore? I'm sick of that. Thailand can set her own course; Thailand knows how to deal with Thailand; Thai policy makers and lawmakers know how to deal with Thailand. We don't need Singapore to guide our magical way. That said, quoting further: "According to the Foundation, the Bill allowed for significant downgrades of entertainment conflict features promised earlier, such as luxury hotels and shopping malls, with the focus shifted almost entirely to Casinos." 

So again, it looks like critics are arguing, "hey this is not exactly what you initially claimed it was going to be", but meanwhile it looks like casinos are kind of moving forward. It looks like the momentum is behind this idea so it remains to be seen exactly what a final draft will look like and exactly how this will be implemented, but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.