Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Thailand to open casinos [-Thai citizens will have to pay 100,000 baht entrance fee to try their luck]

Thai PM promises first casinos

March 04, 2008
From correspondents in Bangkok
Agence France-Presse


THAILAND'S new prime minister today promised to build the kingdom's first casinos, which he said would bring tourist dollars into a country where gambling is currently illegal.

Samak Sundaravej said he planned to build five casinos open to both foreign holidaymakers and Thai citizens in tourist hotspots Phuket, Pattaya, Khon Kaen, Hat Yai and Chiang Mai.

"Thais who want to gamble can gamble, and police can do other jobs instead of cracking down on illegal gambling dens,'' Samak told reporters.

Tourists will be allowed to try their luck at the tables for free, Samak said, but Thai citizens would have to pay a 100,000 baht ($A3,400) entrance fee.

"The entrance fee will go to charity,'' said Samak, who was approved as prime minister earlier this year after his party won December elections.

He did not make clear whether the hefty sum would be a one-off membership fee.

Gambling is illegal in Thailand - a Buddhist country - but Thais flock to neighbouring Cambodia and Burma where casinos dot the border.

Under-the-table wagers are also placed on sports in this football-mad country, with one economic research centre estimating that Thais bet nearly $US1 billion ($A1.1 billion) on the 2006 World Cup.

Samak insisted that casinos were not bad for Thailand, and said other countries in Southeast Asia were building them.

Singapore is due to open its first casinos in 2010, but will bar almost 30,000 people including bankrupts from entering premises in an effort to curb associated social ills.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bravo Khun Samak!

Just short and brief visit to Cambodia early this week, you and your honor delegates gained influence from Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen on the specializing in gambling system.

During previous years visit of Thaksin, the then premier of Thailand, he had also gained influence from Premier Hun Sen on way to manage demonstrating against demonstrator, but not the way to beat Revere Buddhist Monk like Than Swe of Burma.

Please bring more and more Hun Sen culture as possible as you can.

He is a well-known veteran leader of Asean in beating Buddhist Monk!!!

Anonymous said...

Nope, we do not beat Buddhist Monk, but we do kick the shit out of imitation.

Anonymous said...

4:39PM go back to Hanoi ah youn and if you son of the slaves see what happen to Sadam's sons!

Anonymous said...

Well, we can't have you scam Khmer people with imitation monks can we?

Anonymous said...

I know some people can gambling everything away and get into drug and crime.

What we need is to warn all casino patrons to just gamble for fun, and not to gamble everything away and try to get rich overnight.

Secondly, we should not open the casino 24/7. That way, patrons will have a break to decide whether to stop or continue on the next day. Nothing is 100%, there will be some victim of over-gambling addiction, but we can help them, we should.

Shamefully to say, one my uncles had lost everything he owned, plus he still owed a lot of moneys to some of his brothers and sisters also. Fortunately, he stop now, but I am skeptical as to how long he can stayed out of the casino.