Thailand to revise links with Cambodia [-Thai casinos in Cambodia will be hurt the most?]

11/11/2009
Bangkok Post

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he has assigned the Foreign Ministry to revise Thailand's cooperation with Cambodia following Phnom Penh's official refusal of request to extradite former premier Thaksin Shinawatra back to Thailand.

He said he was sorry Cambodia had decided not abide by international agreements and law, but Thailand would still not use force against its neighbour.

The border would also not be the closed, but the government would adopt tougher measures to prevent Thais crossing the border to gamble in Cambodia.

The government would try to make sure that people living along the Thai-Cambodian border were not affected, he said.

On Tuesday, the cabinet agreed to revoke a memorandum of understanding on the overlapping maritime boundary with Cambodia in the eastern Gulf of Thailand, but it will not take effect until it is approved by parliament.

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.