Despite years of political turmoil, Thailand remains a popular tourist destination and a longstanding hotbed for casino development speculation. The Land of Smiles expects more than 26 million visitors this year, nearly 5 million of them from China, with Malaysia, Russia, Japan, South Korea and India, all restricted casino markets, in the next five slots. That’s an awfully tempting target, and after a fall in visitor arrivals and tourism revenues last year, Thailand may be ripe to try its luck with casinos.
It’s not just about tourists Thai nationals bet billions at underground casinos in Thailand and legal casinos in neighboring countries. Donaco International, which this month completed its takeover of Star Vegas Casino and Club, the largest of ten casinos just across border in Poipet, Cambodia, reported that punters bet nearly $4 billion there in the fiscal year ended June 30. Star Vegas customers are nearly all Thais, and, thanks to improvements in road links to Bangkok and the military government’s crackdown on illegal casinos, plus more vigorous marketing, revenue rose 46.5% from the previous 12 months. The combination of locals and tourists makes Thailand an extremely tempting gaming market.
Thailand’s latest outbreak of casino speculation began in June. Two members of the post-coup military government’s National Reform Council suggested casino to bolster tourism. The pair said they represented about a dozen members of the advisory panel and planned to submit a more detailed proposal to the government.
“It's a stupid time to raise [casino legalization] with the country facing many more important social and economic issues," a source in Thailand familiar with regional gaming that requested anonymity says. Many saw the NRC members launching a trial balloon for interests higher up in the regime.
Thailand’s Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul was diplomatic, expressing studied ambivalence toward casino legalization. Like others in the Thai tourism industry that I’ve talked to about gaming legalization, she contended that casinos would change the character of tourism, reshuffling the mix without significantly increasing numbers. Other Thai influentials voiced support for casinos, including National Police Chief General Somyot Poompanmoung.
After letting the debate simmer for a week, the head of the military regime,
Prayut’s smackdown wasn’t enough to dissuade Thai journalists visiting Singapore to ask
LVS opened Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in 2010, and the $5.7 billion icon has become the envy of other destinations that want urban integrated resorts. “For Thailand, we would love to have an integrated resort at a place close to the city center or financial center, near the international airport,” Boo said, according to Thailand’s The Nation newspaper.
In Thailand, though, casino speculation centers on resort areas. In June, the NRC members suggested casinos at beach retreat Pattaya, a couple of hours from Bangkok. For decades, casino proponents have touted Phuket, the resort island off Thailand’s southwest coast, an hour’s flight from Bangkok. Though both destinations have international airports and other selling points, they’re hardly urban or financial centers.
Thailand’s culture and national psyche permeate the casino issue, writer Christopher G Moore says. “Thailand remains a place of ghosts and spirit houses where gambling habits run deep as people bet on their karma beating the odds,” Moore, who’s lived in Thailand since the 1980s, explains. “In that case, why aren't there casinos everywhere? Many reasons but we can boil them down to their bare essence: moral and economic.”
Author of more than 30 books, including several of Thai language and culture, Moore says, “A deep seated socially conservative elite fears the masses would not be able to control their impulse to wager all to the ruin of their family; the notion of sin runs deep with gambling, as does the fear of domestic unrest in the event the food and rent money is gambled away. Prohibition is to save them from themselves,” Moore, whose crime fiction, such as Gambling on Magic, examines Thai society’s underside, says.
“The moral crusaders have their allies in the vast network of illegal casino owners and their network, all of whom would suffer economic loss should casinos become legal. Prohibition creates gangsters and corruption. Gangsters and religious fanatics are a winning combination each time someone raises the possibility of legalizing the casino business,” he says. “You need a long time horizon before you can expect this unofficial coalition to be defeated in Thailand.”
