Thailand’s Council of State, mainly responsible for the drafting of laws, will oppose the Entertainment Complex Bill for casino liberalisation as currently formulated. This is on the basis it does not address the issue of existing illegal gambling in the kingdom.
That is according to a Sunday report by the Bangkok Post, citing a source it didn’t identify.
The source said although the bill purports to help tackle illegal gambling, concerns persist over whether the bill would address unauthorised gambling stemming from weak enforcement of current laws.
Also, the Council of State had concerns that the bill focused too much on the gambling component of the proposed entertainment complexes, and not how they might fit into Thailand’s overall push to improve the scope and quality of its tourism sector.
The policy’s aim was – as cited by the source to the news outlet – to create resorts of the sort seen in Singapore’s casino resort duopoly, with high-quality hotels, shopping malls, entertainment venues, and conference centres.
It had been suggested in December that Thailand was poised to pass this year an enabling bill for land-based casinos.
Thailand’s Finance Ministry is promoting the bill as an economic driver, projecting increased tourism revenue of up to THB475.5 billion (US$13.7 billion) annually, with 9,000 to 15,300 new jobs created and government revenue gains of THB12 billion to THB39 billion per year.
Last Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong announced the government would initiate discussions on a push to legalise online gambling.
