The trend is definitely open for “The first legal casino in Thailand” is under the umbrella of a comprehensive entertainment venue. (Entertainment Complex) that has already been approved by the House of Representatives on March 28, 2024. From now on, it will be the duty of the “Cabinet (Cabinet)” to consider and approve moving forward with an in-depth study of the details to be concise and then enact legislation. I will present it to the House of Representatives to consider enacting into law. And in this matter, the “government side” sent a clear signal accepting legal casinos. to control and supervise and collect taxes correctly even “The opposition is still inclined to agree,” until there is only the public sector’s faintest voice of opposition. And a few academics expressed their stance against the opening of legal casinos. Thanakorn Komkrit, secretary-general of the Stop Gambling Campaign Foundation, said that for the “Draft of the Comprehensive Entertainment Business Operations Act, B.E..” at the Special Committee Consider studying the opening of a full-service entertainment venue. Propose it to the House of Representatives meeting for approval. “It is the preparation of a draft law for dolls to be prepared” for education. or discuss and edit later But in fact “Opening legal casinos in Thailand” is a matter that has been raised and signaled since the previous government with its stance. “Political parties from all sides” agree that there will be casinos in the country as planned. “Special Committee discusses in the House of Representatives” like never before, only with slightly different content on some issues, causing society to send a signal to question whether “How ready is the government sector to take care of the impacts…?” with some people lacking confidence in dealing with problems after the opening of casinos in the country. because of the past The “political side” tries to focus on economic reasons as a source of encouragement for people to have hope and follow suit, if we’re being honest. “The matter of economic income” was presented without any apparent reason, even by Chulaphan Amornvivat, Deputy Finance Minister, chairman. The Special Committee to study this matter also explained to the House of Representatives that if they move forward with opening a legal casino, they must further study the economic feasibility of whether or not the project that has already been implemented will be successful or not. The “Special Committee” does not have a budget to study the feasibility of this economic matter. Therefore, if you want to open a casino in the country, you must use the “government” budget to conduct additional studies because the results of studies abroad cannot confirm that. “Can it really be applied to Thailand or not?” because the characteristics of the country are very different at present. “Asia is surrounded by casinos,” which are rapidly expanding in the market, with both new and existing operators. Most recently, in March 2024, “The Philippines announced it was a casino hub competing with Singapore.” Therefore, there is a question of Thailand opening a new casino like this. “What strengths will be highlighted” to compete with the old operators? Therefore, opening a casino in the country should be studied. “Economic feasibility first” because this project requires a huge investment. “Both economic aspects and social investment” that will cause many problems as a result. The issue is “Political policy” definitely wants to have legal casinos in the country. “Just the form, size, location, number, by who these people are is still unclear.” However, it is believed that the support team should be moving forward to assess the readiness of the people, society, investor groups, and the government sector, all of which have already been prepared. “In this matter, stones were continually thrown and asked for directions until it led to the drafting. Comprehensive Entertainment Facilities Act, 10 sections, 69 sections, including definitions Structure of the Business Policy Committee and complete entertainment business Therefore, it must depend on whether the government will move forward with drafting a new law or bringing forward a version of the Act. All the extraordinary committees have come.” Thanakorn said that the problem was noting that “the draft Act of “Special Committee” has quite a number of loopholes, such as in the case of using the word The umbrella “Entertainment Complex” diverts the focus away from opening casinos. It has become a big weakness in the accounting business attached to most of the 12 business types of integrated entertainment venues. “There is already a specific law supporting this,” so there is no need to include it in the draft. Even the Comprehensive Entertainment Act If you’re really brave “The issue of opening legal casinos in Thailand should be raised straightforwardly” by issuing a draft The new Casino Act is completely specific and there is no need to hide it “under the umbrella of the draft Integrated Entertainment Facilities Act” because it makes the focus unclear, making it more difficult to write the law. And then the more offers The Special Committee has opened a wide framework to allow casinos to be opened in 66 provinces. “Plus, it is open to having casinos of all sizes,” starting from size S, small casinos in communities, and also “size M” being casinos at the district level.” size L” Provincial level casinos located in major cities. or major tourist attraction provinces, “size XL” is a large casino that requires a specific area, but according to the principles of size S, M, most often called “Gambling casinos” are not large casinos if you look back at the report. The “Special Committee” has proposed starting a model for legal casinos in Thailand. “It was modeled after an entertainment complex. and governance system from the Singapore model.” But actually, as far as we can see, the “Draft Comprehensive Entertainment Facilities Act” is similar to the Cambodian model instead of the observation of the centralization of power at the policy board or super board. 9 people, chaired by the Prime Minister, 1 Deputy Prime Minister, and the Finance Minister. Minister of Tourism and Minister of the Interior Then there were 4 experts appointed by the “Prime Minister”, becoming an entire political group with the power to determine almost every aspect of the entertainment complex. Next was the “Executive Board” that came from the permanent secretaries of various ministries. AMLO Secretary General BOI Secretary-General, Police Commander who is a permanent civil servant Came in to act as a housekeeper in management only according to the super board’s orders. “There is no authority to check and balance any decision,” with the NBTC’s office acting as the secretariat, acting as if it were the hands to implement this structure. “It is a one-way, vertical type,” which is different from the principle of “Singapore” which separates power into two sides, namely the side that oversees casino operations on the one hand. The other side takes care of the problem and its effects. The supervisory department will determine various measures. Strictly under a reliable agency, Singapore is already very famous in this regard, so the “Comprehensive Entertainment Act” is giving the Super Board the highest authority, being a group that approves of having casinos. “To help stimulate the economy” would cause the super board to push for regulations to facilitate casino capital, resulting in the “executive board and secretariat” having to comply with the policy, creating a huge loophole because it is impossible to supervise. Strict care The “casino business” that the administration hopes to rely on is It is counter to the claim to strictly enforce the law in controlling and supervising it. Moreover, allowing “Open a casino size S, M” which is a small size that is not suitable for tourists to play. In the end, it became “Thai people” who would play instead, resulting in the reduction of measures taken into account as the end of the report wrote: “The conditions should not be set too stringently” because it will prevent Thai people from being able to play in casinos. As for “punishments”, they mainly focus on fines and “no prison sentences”. Therefore, the draft of the Comprehensive Entertainment Act has many loopholes. The report also states that hearings can be held online. Therefore, Thai people are very interested in this matter, fearing that it will have social impacts, so they want to call for a referendum like many countries have done and emphasize that “Opening a legal casino in Thailand” should be done carefully. Study thoroughly and put strict measures in place “In order to have the least possible consequences” otherwise it will become not worth it. Click to read more column “Scoop Page 1”
