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 https://www.gamblinginsider.com/news/10900/thailand-government-announces-sub-committees-to-combat-illegal-gambling
 (https://www.gamblinginsider.com/news/10900/thailand-government-announces-sub-committees-to-combat-illegal-gambling)

I came across this news where the government of Thailand is looking to get a sub committee ready to tackle the illegal gambling in the country.

They do believe that these gambling sites are the ones spreading the COVID more.

I do believe that people living in thailand should be careful if they are engaging in such things and also think about the consequences for sure. Since this time the people and the governing body of these illegal casinos will have a major problem.

I do believe that the government is not only working to eradicate the COVID hotspots but at the same time they want to make gambling businesses only legal since the revenues are forever in the favor of the government.

Now let's look at some quote taken from google :


Now most of the activities are illegal , so the government would shut down these businesses and at the same time might force some of them to work towards legally starting a new casino , which would be in the favour of the government. Though I don't understand why the revenues is so high ? Since most small businesses won't be able to handle such restrictions.

I do believe that the government with regards to shutting down such business should also think about decreasing the tax revenues for them since most of them are small shop owners and they will continue to do so legally or illegally what matters is how better the government integrates it in the society.

What do you think ?
Should they make reforms before shutting down the whole thing ? I think this could benefit people and the government as a whole.

Given the current situation of the pandemic, business owners are opting to establish illegal gambling facilities to at least help them with their situation. But the pandemic alone does not justify their illegal gambling activities especially that they lack all the required licenses and permits to do so.


The government needs to formulate ideas on how to at least combat unemployment and job opportunities given the pandemic. People are resulting to illegal activities due to the situation that most are being laid off by the companies. In addition, tax rates must also be adjusted given the current situation. This will benefit both sides in the long run and until countries have adjusted to the pandemic.

Ofcourse this is not at all justified but at the same time I do believe that the stimulus bills are not available in every country and therefore the government should at least give like a month for these people to register and then at least reduce the tax according to how small and the big the business is because in small countries it is indeed a very normal thing to have illegal gambling places, more common than one would think.

I know a lot of people who were behind the bars and then started again the moment they got out of the jail. This is a never ending chase and therefore I do believe that this needs to be tackled more deeply. Instead of giving them hefty charges they need to give them time and at the same time keep it in check every now and then.

Illegal gambling places are not only dangerous but they are too deep rooted and therefore I think they need to use some positive force here especially in thailand.

Should be done even before. It's no secret that not just Thailand, but other countries also noticed the growth of illegal gambling, whether online or not, during the lockdown period, to target those people that lurking in their homes. Honestly, the people themselves play a big role in the rise of these illegal gambling as they tend to play gambling here compare to regulated ones.

Simple as it is; no license, running and operating illegally, not complying with the safety and health protocol = then shut down those businesses. If small operators can comply, no reason at all for other operators not to follow the legal way.

Illegal gambling cannot be completely eradicated. The only way that could have been done is educating the people on the menace that comes with it but the chances that all of them would take that education serious, learn and live by it is very much a 50-60 chance. It could go some lent to reducing it but then, it won't stop it. Legalizing lots of games gambled on could be another best way to go but still, it won't stop illegal gambling.

Based on the article, I can conclude that their goal is mostly because of the spreading virus although they have a sub committee for the long term which means they are also doing it for the sake of this people and maybe the government. I think it would be hard for them to identify these places as people would side with the gamblers than the one under the law.

Here in our country, when the police comes to illegal gambling dens, some people even hide those people so they will not be caught.

Nothing can fix this kind of problems and to be fair, these restrictions does more harm than good. People always do what you want, so none restriction can fully prevent it. What do you think, are most part of people seriously staying at home? People still workout secretly, still offer some services secretly, people still do things that they were doing before secretly. But if we return to the subject of this topic, it's hard for me to believe that people go in underground casinos because nowadays online gambling is highly developed and popular too, there is done everything for customers comfort.

hard to beat people that know where to go or hide when authorities come. they will do it again and again. what if address the reason why they are into illegal gambling? maybe because they need money in order to survive during this crisis. and knowing thailand, a lot of its people are also in poverty. so maybe, create jobs or small businesses that will cater their daily needs. that may address the occurrence of illegal gambling. address the root cause and you will eradicate the effect.

Not everything in this world has to be and can be made legal. The government always acts like it wants to help the people but for them it's about money.

Illegal gambling doesn't leave taxes in their pocket and legal businesses need licenses to operate and can be shut down and fined if needed. It also costs money to track down illegal casinos but legal ones need to register and need to fill all the paperwork which is not free. Every clerk wants some fee for every document you file.

I don't get it. They are officially offering marijuana food and cosmetics now and are having one of the biggest hookers industry for sex tourism, but are having problems with gambling...

If the COVID is the primary concern, they must stop everything, not just illegal gambling.

If you will read the article, you can picture out that gambling sessions there really happens in a certain place.

Since the TH government will now officially seek measures and shutdown those illegal gamblers, it means there are reports about it that are valid and confirmed. Maybe in your country, that wasn't the situation but in Thailand, there are lots of violators, not just because they are gambling illegally but they disregard the health protocols about the Covid-19.


Probably they are working on it. It's difficult to tackle down other problems at the same time when people themselves aren't cooperating.

There should be at least some reconsideration on how much reductions or taxes that would really be imposed or applied.They should consider also the small ones
rather than focusing solely on bigger to make some big deductions.It will surely hurt up even though it does have viable positive effects on the country as a whole
when it comes to progress and development but if they wont really be making some changes then those business owners wouldnt have a choice.
On other thing about saying that gambling places are source of covid, ? well thats have some points but to look on other side of the world where
gambling physical places had already opened but of course they do really follow strict health protocol.

Illegal gambling is the concern of all countries because it deprives the government of revenues and since they are not bound by any laws they can break any laws even allowing underage to play and besides illegal gambling is the cash cows of corrupt government officials, they could be one of the reasons why there are spread of Covid in Thailand because they are not bound by any laws.

Looking at Thailands total covid cases including the active and deaths statistics, I can say that they are good in fighting against it. But recently the spike is noticeable.

And if they are thinking that illegal gambling operations are the ones that's helping to spread the virus quickly, it is two birds with one stone that they do.

Since most of it is illegal, those casinos have no right to be operating. The government probably wants to make it legal to tax the so it's going to be a win-win. I believe that people would have more confidence in the casinos if it's registered. If it doesn't observe the right precautionary approach to prevent the spreading of the virus, then it's the establishment's fault.

Probably there are a lot more not yet discovered but that's what makes the gambling area even more enticing. A lot of VIP gamblers would sure to go there. Maybe that's the reason why they don't want to go legal.

Exactly, that's why we should always stick on the gambling sites that have a license because they had the authorization to operate gambling that bound to the country's laws. This is the most problem by the country and I think not the only the government of Thailand, even in Indonesia they are very strict on it.

It's prone to fraud if we tolerate gambling sites that didn't have a license to operate, they can manipulate their system and I guess the provably fair system will not work once they are no licensed.

Regarding land-based gambling, if they don't want to legalize all forms of gambling it means they don't want gambling tolerated in their country and that is their jurisdiction, and even us we have nothing to do.

Illegal gambling is the main target of the government because it steals some of the revenue of the legal gambling owned by such authorities related to the government and mostly those illegal gambling don't have any health restrictions which is really required for every casino to implement. Gambling is such a good business and a good thing to make our economy bring back to normal because of its high tax.

Legalised some gambling platform will be the solution here. Cracking down on illegal gambling won't be the solution as it will just pop up and move to other places and it's going to be very difficult for the government to come and stop all those illegal gambling. Also the issue of corruption, for sure this illegal operators are not afraid because maybe some big politician or corrupt police officials are behind the operations. So it's better to just legalised some form of gambling, win win for the government and the gamblers.

I think we all know that the Covid argument here is just pretextual. The state is losing millions of dollars in tax revenue due to illegal gambling, and of course they don't want to miss out on that.
Covid is, of course, a great reason to get the broadest possible support among the population for the measures taken.

Will these people accept with the regulation though?

People would think that the government wanted that taxes so bad that is why they are planning this all ahead. In my opinion it is really necessary for them to point out these illegal gambling places as there are a lot of people making these secret bets and secret profits that is like an underground gambling place to me. They need to address if they have a problem, and it is necessary for strict protocols.

No matter how hard the Thai government tries, the shadow gambling business will not be eradicated. There are many things in the world that are controlled by organized crime groups. In order to force them to give up their bread, a lot of blood will have to be spilled. I think that no one will just go for such measures.

Honestly, the COVID-19 as a reason to tackle illegal gambling doesn't sound realistic. So when people play legallly in a casino, they're not spreading COVID-19? And how about illegal online casinos? Clearly, they have nothing to do with COVID-19.
That being said, I think it's reasonable to minimise unnecessary contacts during the pandemic, and going to a casino is one of these things that should be put on pause. And the government should oppose any activities, legal and illegal, that contribute to the growth of COVID-19 cases. Meanwhile the gambling industry should be regulated, so that the state gets the revenue and people get to gamble without being criminals.

Yes, it is hard to eradicate the illegal gambling business because it makes many people try to win money. Many of them depend on illegal gambling to make money, and many of them desperate to search for a job in their city, so they use gambling to make money. I think the illegal gambling bribe the officials to protect their business, so they do not get any problem with the law or the police. If we talk about an illegal business, there will be many people who will be related to that business.

What's ideal is that they would, in order to continue such activity. Well, that's also the thing, if you want to do something that is not legal to a country, whether you will push your luck to continue it despite of the restrictions and eventually be fined for it, or just accept the fact that almost everything is now being taxed in order to continue playing. Even in my country  only few gambling games are allowed such as lotteries and those in casinos, but those are taxed. But since people are still buying it, I guess it won't be that much of a bad thing than to be forced to stop playing permanently.

Precisely. This problem is really a big one since there are many influence that holds the government, they'll have a lots of difficulties to eradicate this kind of activities.


Those mafias are also connected with high rank politicians or high rank police officials.


Or,  the chance that money will speak louder than any government rules and regulations, someone who can deal underground just to
protect those illegal gambling businesses.

And that would  be mostly in officials on who would be the one behind of those illegal gambling places.If not, they would really just simply let those places operate as long they
would really be given out some bribe which isnt something new into this world and this doesnt only exist on movies but rather in reality since the beginning of time.
Getting rid of illegal things completely is on that impossible side.They can regulate and prohibit all they want but still there would be that will be running off
without any  jurisdiction or control.

Gambling always finds it way. Though I'm happy Thailand is at least doing something to ward off these illegal gamblers. Here in my country, even funerals and wakes are being profiteered, they set up gambling tents and bet on money to pay off the services and the grave. Everybody knows about this but no one is doing something.

During situation like a pandemic it is important that the government should identify the places where these activities especially illegal gambling and clubs or dance bars can create problems as people do not really care about the situation and flaunt social distancing norms. It is a not a problem in Thailand alone but everywhere in the world where these illegal bars and gambling function usually paying off the cops or the local body.

That was too much of thinking. How can you say that if you aren't there and sees the situation?

Thailand's government knows better than us. This isn't a childish discussion.

They will just tackle the problems of illegal gambling and that was common and usual in any country. If they will fail, which I think won't happen, at least they tried. If they succeed, then good as legit gambling operators will get more revenue, hence helping the government in terms of tax.

Illegal gambling has been a common problem in most countries. Though we know how strict the government and authorities imposing rules and regulations, unfortunately, this still not enough to stop people from doing this. The problem is that some illegal gambling has been protected by some known personality and even back-up by the authorities. Some greedy people whos been imposing such rules are milking this illegal gambling making them not apprehend and put in jail. This is the reason why illegal gambling will never stop no matter how the government is aggressive.

If the revenue is so much as you stated, very well might the government should just select some of the most active ones, and then talk to the casino owners and force them to sign in legal terms. For the casino owners, atleast totally removal of casino is worse than having the casino ongoing and having a lesser profit nonetheless. And yeah, it can benefit all, people who are addicts, casino owners and government!

They also should solve the corruption in their monarch government, many citizens hates the King and I think that this regulation will only anger the people as they do not want to participate in anything that their government does, some will definitely actively participate in this illegal gambling ring just to piss off their government. Taxation is a good thing but the people seem to know that it lines the pockets of the few elites of the country so I get their sentiment if they do not plan to abide this measures.

I agree with the Thai government if it is proven that illegal gambling is one of the causes of the spread of the corona virus. But it is not enough
to close all illegal casinos in Thailand, because surely the Thai population who is addicted to gambling will look for ways to keep playing gambling
in secret. Why not give education to play online gambling, because it is proven that online gambling can prevent the spread of the corona virus.

There is only one real solution for illegal gambling. And that solution is to legalize all gambling activity. Prohibiting gambling, porn.etc reminds me of the dark ages. We are living in 21st century and the government should not decide on what forms of entertainment is permitted and what are not. Banning the casinos will only result in pushing it underground and handing over control to the criminal gangs.

Illegal gambling are being host by some casinos because they are struggling right now and in my country many casinos are closing their business because of pandemic. Well, Illegal gambling is already out in the market even before the pandemic, maybe Thailand wants to collect more taxes from those illegal gambler, they have to strengthen their own laws with regards to this one.

I personally don’t want to gamble illegally, especially on a country where your criminal action can be resulted to a lifetime imprisonment. This problem can’t be solve easily because I know this is being supported by the corrupt politician, let’s see if Thailand can finally erase those illegal gambling site.

Government are making huge profit through taxes on every casinos so I think they can't afford to lose this market and that's why they are hunting all those illegal gambling, on a place like Thailand, collecting taxes is very important same thing in my country.


If you don't want to get in trouble then better to transact on a legit gambling site so you can have totally fun without worrying for the authority to get you caught. Its not ok to deal on illegal things, not just on gambling so think again if you are planning to play illegally, good luck.

gambling sites spreading covid but how ? gambling sites are online and people dont gather to play online ,

what they mean are real life gambling places but if they can disenfect the whole gambling area and people will wear mask and face shield , also with the help of covid vaccine i dont think the covid will spread . government should decrease the tax and small gambling owners are going to think if they can afford it ,

if not then they should quit that business and dont ever think of operating illegaly but they can open other business and if they are already succesful and have lots of money they can go back on the gambling business legally .

That will make the illegal gambling stay for a long time without attracting more officials to investigate the place because they have a backup from the stronger officials behind them. Maybe we do not know the truth because they work behind layers without seeing what they did. That will include people who can not pay the money if they borrow the money from the casino, and they will clean the mess if something happens to that casino.

It is really hard to get rid of illegal gambling because of the stronger people behind that business. Maybe if there is a strict rule that will punish the officials, the illegal gambling can get reduced for a while, but that does not guarantee to clean it because the gambling business is already working from a long time ago. It is like the root of the gambling business.

I think it is in the right of every government to tax every business operating in the country boundaries.Even though illegal casinos maybe appealing to a very few certain persons they should go legal or close activity.When a business pay taxes it also has benefits from it as the government can help tackle problems when they arise because you paid taxes.

Indeed. The government is earning a considerable amount of profit in taxes in every legal casino. That is why it is a significant loss for the government to let illegal casinos earn money from gamblers. So they are continuously shutting down every illegal casino in a place like Thailand to make them pay taxes.

Yes. Avoid transacting and playing in an illegal gambling site or casino so you could avoid closing your account or funds and for you not to get caught by the authorities.

Government regulations would push every individuals to abide their rules on taxation, by virtue of no choice. This became mandatory on every business establishments, because if they don't follow certain implementation they're considered as illegal gambling operation. If there's a need for petition when there's really a hardships encountered, then it's always open to raise for congress or some officials who can help in a specific country.

100% Covid is used to blame everything and anything,,, but the fact always remains in the issue of gambling. Should it be legal so that it can be taxed? But if so, the state has to fight with moral values and religion and ethics, which culturally in Thailand is a vice and frowned upon by most members of society.

This time of pandemic almost majority of the community all over the world are jobless, that's why a lot of people now are doing everything to earn money in online. And of course, in online gambling with a small amount of capital they've been thinking that they can multiply it more than x10 or more. Probably, in Thailand there are a lot of illegal gambling arise in this country, so their state is thinking to resolve it I think.

Gambling is good but only on the controllable state. 70% is such a big rate, if you will convert that to tax earning opportunity that is huge, but how about the effect of the people, with that huge exposure in gambling then I think the government has a problem.

They can legalized gambling sites or casinos but they need to limit, or if they want to consider gambling taxes as one of their major tax revenue, then they should allow foreigners to run a business and will only allow their people to work to create jobs but not to gamble.

70% of adults into regular gambling is really a bad thing. If it is in a developed country, then this isn't a big issue. For a country like Thailand, the government need to take necessary steps to safeguard it's citizens. To overcome this government can come up with the plan of creating official lotteries. Every week or every month these lottery draw need to be conducted. When it is pure luck based, people will tend to spend much on it. To make people have self control, a limitation need to be set on buying. This way the government can have control over illegal gambling and add tax revenue.

70% while all of them are illegal gambling, of course the government will reform this as they are not benefiting from this.  If they will put taxes and legalized gambling business, then it could help to improve their economy, unless the government is corrupt and officials are just serving their personal interest.

That's exactly what's happening there, not saying they don't care about COVID at all, since obviously that will also negatively affect their economy, but for the most part it's about the gambling tax(both for gambling businesses and their customers), of course none of the countries that have legal gambling want to miss out on any portion of the revenue from gambling specially after COVID that significantly slowed down economy, so they will try as hard as they can to keep people from gambling anywhere else other than those which are legal and pay tax to the government.

I believe it was a few months ago that Argentina raised its tax to 5% for gamblers, again the same reason, many governments around the world are facing financial problems due to the COVID and trying to somehow make up for the budget deficit caused by it by any means available.

If they are violating the rules, then it's reasonable for the government to shut down their casino businesses knowing that the safety of the people there will be at risk. The government of Thailand is actually doing great with how they take action towards the pandemic since they have low covid cases compared to other countries and they are probably just preventing another wave. Aside from their aim to prevent the spreading of the virus, illegal gambling won't do any benefits to the government that's why they are being strict with it. From what I have searched, there's only a limited legal form of gambling in Thailand and maybe that causes people to operate illegally. Their government can work on legalizing gambling/casinos in their country since they can benefit from it but I don't think it's the right time to focus on it right now since it can stimulate public gatherings.

adults because under age are mainly restricted to gamble but there could be tresspassers but the number are smaller . its 70 percent althought its high but it wasnt 100 percent but it doesnt matter how much percent people are gambling but if they can control their habit that will not be a problem but that can infact contribute to them and to their economy . the main issue here is not addiction or involvement in gambling or being develop or not but its the illegality and legality of gambling in this country

Haha. You are very funny. All countries have the same problems that cannot be solved for decades. Such problems include corruption, organized crime, money laundering, drug trafficking, weapons and illegal gambling.

If you have an example of a country that managed to defeat all these problems, I would love to hear about it.

Banning the casinos isn't going to solve anything. If people are willing to lose money they will lose it anyway. Isn't it better to keep the lost money in the country? Because otherwise those people will play on foreign casinos and that money will go to other countries.

If they are looking for a real solution, I advise them to build more schools and raise the teachers' salary.

Well they are talking about illegal casinos... they are illegal! They have plans how to end illegal gambling, but I am not sure if that can be done only by shutting down illegal casinos, they need to create some laws and legalize it... in that way casinos will pay taxes, workers will have all the benefits of a legal job... later those tax money can be used for everything else... you can force casinos to invest some of their profits in the neighborhood they work in!
Banning casinos is not solving anything, like banning drugs! People will always find a way to bypass those bans, and contra effect is more criminals on the streets, money goes in private pockets!

Depending on what is so illegal about them, they could still compromise. If they have no licenses, those casinos could get their licenses in an agreed time frame. I am sure most of them would comply.

Then they can ban the rest.

What can be illegal about a casino other than missing a gambling license? I don't know.

This will always happen, it may be closed now but after cool down or no more loud issues in them they will be back in business, what worse is sometimes those people behind those illegal casinos are in contact with high official or government officials that's why they don't fear to do their business illegally.being strict with implementation of rules and laws should be push to avoid these illegal activities.

Some people are obviously going to disregard the ban and do their business. But it is going to be risky, and the cops will be having the opportunity with them to blackmail and harass the gamblers. The entire business will be driven underground away from the eyes of the authorities. Mafias will get involved and we may witness increasing incidences of rigging and violence.

Shut down the illegal gambling will not succeed because there will be much more illegal gambling running in a secret place without the government knows. Maybe the government does not need to shut down the illegal gambling, but they can use another approach to the owner and give an offer that can benefit the owner and the government.

People come to illegal gambling because they want to make money by using money. That will not be good for them, but the government can not stop that activity because people already know that others can win through gambling. The discussion will be necessary between the government and the owner to solve illegal gambling, and it is better to invite illegal gambling to join with the government. If that can happen, that can be a success story for them. That can be a new way from the government to clean the mess of illegal gambling in their country.

It is not only because of Covid that was being spread (In which expenses from the government) and also the loss of taxation that hurts the country most.

Illegal gambling is gaining Too much money without giving what government deserves and also the chances of the People who gambles that experience not fair treatment because they can not report for what is happening inside for this is illegal .

Well the first thing that comes in my mind are gambling games in illegal casinos! Except traditional games we play (poker and many card games, slots, roulette, all sort of dice games...) maybe they organize betting on some fights (humans or animals...)...

I got more interested in this topic, so I did a little research... I found some interesting stuff!

"Other than horse racing and the lottery, all forms of gambling are illegal under the Thailand Gambling Act of 1935. The penalties range from 500 to 5000 baht (about $15 to $150). ... There are over 50,000 arrests a year for gambling in Thailand."

"National Lottery is the only form of legal gambling that most people in Thailand have access to. This began in 1974. Today drawings are held on first and sixteenth day of every month"

So as you see all gambling games are illegal, so this illegal casinos can't get any licenses... It's not what I thought at first!

Quotes from above are from these two articles: https://www.onlinebetting.com/legal/thailand/ (https://www.onlinebetting.com/legal/thailand/) https://www.onlinebetting.com/legal/thailand/lottery/ (https://www.onlinebetting.com/legal/thailand/lottery/)

Articles are connected, and I think both of them worth reading if you wish to check more about gambling in Thailand!

They are making money from those arrests instead of taxes if gambling is legal, 50000 arrest is big money for the coffer of the government, but these illegal gambling operators are making more money than the government arrest, somebody out there in the government should recommend making gambling legal this is for the government's additional revenue and also to avoid corruption.

It is very important that you have mentioned corruption in your post because until its level is reduced to a minimum, no combating illegal gambling will have a positive effect. Corruption is an invisible enemy that lives among us and until we conquer it it is very difficult to change something for the better in any country.

Run into a secret place or not, they'll take them down. Why do you think illegal gambling shouldn't shutdown? The owner should be the one to approach the government.

Not the government approaching and pleasing them to become legal. That's why they are illegal, they're up to something against the law.

If what they consider "gambling" are businesses that allow or encourage customers to take big risk then I think it's OK they eliminate gambling altogether. But if the government considers all kinds of bettings as "gambling" then I think they should only allow the Safe Betting Businesses. That will probably mean a massive regulation of the Betting/Prediction Market to reduce or eliminate things that may be harmful to customers and society in general. 

Regarding the legality of these gambling businesses, only the government of Thailand could decide. Especially during this pandemic.
However, stipulation with regards to the permits and tax required should be done in my opinion, to give way for both businesses and government.
Truly, with the 70% of the adults who gambles, the nation could benefit by taking on its economic benefits like as employment opportunities.

70 percent of thai adults?  :o Wow that's a really high rate! What's your exact source for those figures please?
It implies that most of thaï women are regular gamblers too. That's crazy!

Maybe he do get those figures or percentage on these websites.

https://www.mdgasiapacific.org/gambling-in-thailand/gambling-in-thailand-market/

"The national lottery game is a primary game which is played by the Thailand players. Thailand initiates strict laws to play the game. In a recent survey, approximately 70% of the adult populations gamble regularly."

It hasnt been clarified if women is included into this one though.

With this figure I don't think the Thailand government can curb gambling activities in their country, it's just to high to contain, they will have to allocate a lot of manpower just to to contain gambling and I don't think they can even do that to 50% of the population that is involved in gambling, they should address this issue differently.

If they have a mature regulatory framework in place, then sure.

If not, then how are they ever going to enforce a crackdown? The demand for gambling won't just disappear overnight because of a restriction the government put in.

In terms of the motivations, I don't think that this has anything to do with COVID. More likely than not, this is simply a way for the government to assert its control over the industry in order to reap tax revenues, which is fair enough to them - but they obviously need a better sounding reason than that.

With such amount of people who gamble there are many illegal facilitators that will take the risk of opening their own platforms.
It's tough call for the government to supress this people and like what you have said, if they really planning to succeed with this
action, they needed to add more manpower not just for primary role but also those behind it's a lot of workloads to everyone.

It is difficult to curb gambling activities in that country since 70% of the adult population gamble regularly. That means they enjoy playing gambling while they also have a hope to win from the lottery game. If they need to have many human resources, they can open recruitment to people in every city in that country. I think that can also help people who already lost their job before to try to fill the position. It can solve the problem that many people face to make money again by sign in as the employee.

It will relate to many people out there who want to play gambling, but they do not want to get a formal situation. If the government can use a different approach to the owner and invite them to communicate, I think they will realize that they do not have to be an illegal gambling place.

Illegal gambling is against the law because they do not register their place to the government, and the owner does not want to pay any taxes. But they pay the fee to some people who have the power to protect them from the law. If the government can use this to give the owner a chance to be on the government side, it could give more income to the government, and the owner does not have to worry or worry if they break the law.

Thank you for the link.
Well if they include national lottery games in what they call "gambling" I'm a little bit less surprised after all.

Lottery is a form of gambling. Do you want to consider only casino games under this category? And that is one of the reasons why other forms of gambling are banned in Thailand. The profits from national lottery goes to the government. And as far as I know, less than 25% of the revenue from the ticket sales are used for the prize pool. It is like a casino having house advantage of 75%. And therefore it is not surprising that they don't want competitors in that field.

All countries of Southeast Asia and not just Thailand has an enormous gambling problem. I am not sure for the muslim countries but in the Philippines as well, we have a big illegal gambling activity for many many years now. All the presidents since the '60s I think have tried it but failed. Cockfighting was illegal before but right now it was legalized but with certain conditions. Most common illegal gambling activities would be the electronic horse races and also what we call Jueteng which is a numbers game. Maybe the situation is similar in Thailand possibly with racing and illegal lotteries.

Nost gambling forms in the Philippines which was illegal had been permitted by the government with certain restrictions. Gambling is a big industry and it will be impossible to fully control or stop such activities, so they chose to govern and make it legal and give some restrictions so that they can also benefit from it through taxes. Which is a win-win situation for gamblers and the government. Gambling is part of our culture, even with the government's restriction people will find ways to gamble.

They are not even to stop because of the authorities' laxity. The sad thing is that some of the authorities are running such illegal gambling, who wants to stop them, none? It is just the way we think that illegal gambling will still exist for the next generation and I don't believe there was an end to this issue.

As the spread of gambling continues, more young adults get into trouble and addiction. It's up for us to stop our own rather than to stop the whole thing of gambling. Less hopes it become possible since the government also benefiting from this.

It's good to see OP that you are searching the world in regards gambling regulation , From Argentina ,Japan and Cambodia ? and now it is Thailand that you are spreading the gambling news .

But this is one of the most interesting because this tackles Illegal gambling that we knew how damaging the taxation of the government.

Hope that they will End this even not totally but at least more than half will be put to Justice.

What do you mean by here? A lottery is a form of gambling. By far, it's the biggest legal gambling in every country.

In most countries, lotteries are backed by a government. Some proceeds here are used in infrastructures, charities, and many more.

I agree with you, legal casinos are profitable just like the lottery because our government gets something from it.  And the lottery company itself can assist just like medical and charity work.

As for the closure of illegal gambling in Thailand, it really should be shut down because it is illegal.  And let them continue to operate legally and licensed gambling because even if they involve small gambling businesses, they will lose their jobs, especially if this is what they expect daily.  It also depends on how the steps their government will take, whether the outcome will be successful.  They just tighten the rules instead of closing them, just like having a limit or number of clients or customers, and schedule the opening and closing of the casino.  Of course, followers must also adhere to the applicable laws or protocols and apply the discipline to themselves.

I doubt it's up that percentage. Even the safe bettors who bet regularly would not be upto that percentage atall, not to talk of 70% of the country's adult population engage in very risk bettings. It's possible that number of people who bet occasionally in the country is up to that percentage though. Calling 70% of the adults gamblers (gamblers in betting) is likely an exaggeration

See this is why most gambling should shift to a online platform.. even the small street corner gambling operations should shift to mobile phones. So that you can still gamble against your friends from the safety of your home.  ;)

Where are the software developers? Why can they not create an online version of these street games and then create an option where you can group friends together to gamble in a safe way? (They can take 1% of each round that are played to cover their expense for hosting these games and the players can get the lion share of the winnings)  ;)

Make this decentralized so that the governments cannot shut it down.  8)

These should be taken seriously and i hope that the Thai Government can come up a better solution for these. A health related issues should always be the top priority as of these time where the world are still figuring out what vaccine will be the effective one to fight for the Covid. And i am agreeing with the thought that gambling should be upgraded and updated where online gambling while at home, safe and without worrying about health risk was not the main concern anymore

Well, I don't know how this will work but it sounds interesting to me.
Blockchain will give power to that proposal if they want, they can create a decentralized gambling platform that operates with open-source code and also the purpose that other developers can work for the development of such platform, why not?
Without central operators, gambling will smoothly operate and I don't think the government of Thailand can stop this idea.
On other hand, can a licensed gambling site consider as illegal if this will operate in Thailand?

At 70% that would make Thailand one of the countries with many gamblers, to think that gambling here is illegal I also consider this too exaggerated, if they are going to fine those will violate that means a lot of money but it's also a source of corruption among their police, as a violator you will opt to a lesser cost of fine and if the police are corrupt they will offer them to release for half the fine, and many will bribe officials too.

To be honest I am also surprised by these numbers.

70% is a huge percentage of a country and even though we are talking about the adult gamblers, that is still a huge percentage. Despite that, there are also a lot of people that know a lottery in a country and almost all of the people knew about it. When you say lotto to the people, they will immediately know what you are talking about. That is why despite me getting surprised by that, I know that is true.

There were attempts in the past for the Gambling authorities in government to legalize some of the numbers game that has plagued the country since time immemorial and that is by establishing the small town lotteries. Cockfighting has become a way of life in the provinces and the horse races are still staple in the major cities. Maybe the pandemic has temporarily put these into halt (except for the lotteries) but I think once the situation normalizes then we will see a peak of these games again. Oh, I might also add the card games during funerals also needs to be stopped.

As I'm telling you, it's not the government that will ask them to and approach them. You don't understand it. It isn't the government that will give them special treatment with sort of "approach" you're saying.

If it's illegal then it is illegal.

Indeed, lottery may be the cheapest form of gambling that anyone can afford in the local community and that good thing is it is legal. Each country may have their own kind of lottery and they will collect taxes in this and part of it will be distributed in each departments and foundations, it can help those who are in need especially those pro Bono patients in the hospitals. But even this thing is legal there will be more games that people continue to play even it will cause them to be imprisoned.

Calm down bro. The government can say it is illegal and legal, and they can also change from illegal to legal if they can approach the illegal gambling and ask the owner to make it legal. Maybe they can give special treatment to them as you say, and I think if that treatment is a win-win solution, the owner will think about it. Who knows, with making that deal, the government can invite them to make their business legal, so they do not have to bribe the officials. I think not all of the owners want to have an illegal gambling business.

No owners would really be tending on hiding with the shadows and if they can really take advantage on having connections in to those top positioned fellas then they would really be doing
some sort of common action.When government do see it that it would really be beneficial of them then they would surely be making  steps that would really be on a win-win situation.
Instead of blocking or prohibiting them then why wont allow them instead? They are really aware on the possibly benefit or exchange if doing such thing.
It all matters into their decision though.

Better meet halfway with the government rather than continue the business in illegal way. The truth is, if you are an owner and will not comply with the legalities, you will spend more as you need to pay grease money to corrupt officials. That's the usual scenario here. So why not make your business legal at all angles? At least you will not be running from authorities all throughout your business life.

The ongoing conversation before Saint-loup above message was about the percentage of Thailand adults that gambling regularly which was said to be 70%, I believe women are included and when he heard that the result seem to be base on the Thailand lottery game which is usually back by the government.

To me this is a big factor, in my country many businesses are so desperate because they still cannot open their doors that many are deciding to open a new business outside the regulations, so not only they get to be open they also avoid paying taxes to the government, governments are not going to like this one bit but if they keep such a posture of not allowing businesses to open their doors then people are going to do something to about it even if that means not respecting the law.

The problem there is though is that I think they will be banning these gambling places for good. One of the main reasons I am seeing in this article is that there are a lot of people there that break the rules or the safety measures being applied because of the pandemic. I don't think that the owners have a choice since they will be sent straight to jail.

The only difference now is that the operators of illegal casinos will be forced to pay additional bribes to the cops. Thailand is just like any other third world country, with corruption being rampant among the bureaucracy and police force. Despite all these restrictions, the majority of the illegal casinos would continue to operate by bribing the politicians and the policemen. Once in a while, a few people may be arrested just to show that the cops are serious about implementing the law.

I think it's better for them to let it be legal rather than just completely remove it from their system. The revenue can help their economy, and if managed well, can help them rise back up. It just takes a bit more costs to actually manage and ensure that the gambling establishments follow protocols properly. Not to mention that no matter what, even if they try to remove it, one or two would pop back up in a matter of months, so might as well accommodate and use it to their advantage.

The issue here is simply following safety protocols, so couldn't the government spare the manpower to monitor establishments, under the guise of it being "helping" as a sort of fix for it? Cause in the end, having someone monitor it and ensure that it follows would simply fix the problem, and most possibly reducing the chances of as you say, casinos remaining to be listed as illegal.

That is only if the government wants to get additional income from them, and they concern about legalizing illegal gambling in their country. People will not have to hide their activity to playing gambling because they can free to go to the casino and play gambling with legalizing from the government. It is no use in blocking or prohibiting the illegal gambling business if that country allows gambling because that will give the officials a chance to corrupt the system.

If the government is banning these gambling places, many more hidden gambling places will open to many people secretly because they do not want the government to know about they are playing gambling. Maybe the casino is not applying strict rules to people who come to their place and playing gambling, and maybe there is no strict supervision from the casino. If the casino can strictly with their rules, I am sure people will not try to break the health protocols.

There are other things that the government in Thailand should be concerned about right now. There will first have to be tourists who bring money before gambling can be resumed in its way.
I also don't think that the Thai police will take any harsh action against this, you would only cause fear to tourists. Bad for the name.

Why would they have a problem with tourists?

In terms of this topic, the government of Thailand is having a problem with underground gambling, I don't think tourists that came to Thailand would be a problem since most of these tourists would obviously bet on casinos and not in these illegal places. That won't fear tourists because, at the first place, it is not the reason why these tourists came to that country.

I'm calm mate.

What I'm telling, it's not the government that will approach those illegal casinos and make them illegal. Who should be doing the first move?

Not them but those illegal gambling places if they want to get certified and be legal.

It also depends, if the government makes a public announcement about the mandatory registration of all gambling businesses.  Just like the implementation of the registration of online sellers here in our country but it is not followed.  Maybe at first, some will follow but later they will also lose attention and return to the old routine unless they focus on and restrict law enforcement.  Some are stubborn but it often happens that the authorities approach or pursue illegal activities.  When you ban it, because of the hardships of life today, it will do and will still do illegally especially if they have nothing else to think about to do just to live especially now that the condition of the pandemic is exacerbated.

Oh, that is one. Obviously, some of those big underground gambling places would be backed up by someone inside the government. In some parts of our country, there are also a lot of illegal cockfightings and usually, when police came, they would just run on mountains or hide in the forest just to run from the police with their cocks.

But with the high number of gamblers, this should be a big concern, I don't think it will have an impact on tourism because these gambling operators are working underground, even tourist will not aware that there are existing and gambling is illegal here, every government should have a plan for gambling because it's destroying the nation's good value.

Illegal gambling are not for the tourist, they work on locals and Thailand knows the effect of this and that’s why they are trying to seek more measure to prevent them from making money without paying taxes. Why would you take the risk on playing illegally where you can have fun on legit sites and have the profit where you can put into your banks legally.

Maybe the government needs to approach them, especially after the government can know if the owner has an illegal gambling business. If they can offer a win-win solution to them, I think the owner will think about that, and sooner or later, the owner will see the benefits of making their business legal in their country. Maybe after the government busted the owner because of illegal gambling, they can make offers to make the owner think about what they should do with the government's suggestions.

First of all let me know if gambling is legal in thailand ? If it is not legal then no one can run casino officially however people can still play online.
If the gambling is allowed in thailand, then government should give certain timeline to all the casino owner to register their casino. Failure to do so could result in legal action against them.

If that is so then that is a directive from the government and still, they have to come over to settle what is unsettled.

If they want to remain illegal, they can ignore.

But if they don't want to, they will listen, come and will have their initiative.

Going into legal actions against a lot of gamblers is very time consuming. You need state attorneys and judges ready to deal with all these cases which is going to cost a lot of time and will also turn a lot of people and families against the politics of Thailand. Wouldn't it be better to try and spend that time and money in a more useful manner? Fully legalising gambling would mean the government is actually profiting of it and gives their citizens a better legal framework if something goes wrong.

As far as I know, it is banned there.

As long as it is not a government-supported lottery or betting on horse races, it is illegal. I don't know how addicted people are to gambling in this country but like those Chinese people, they are also into gambling. I don't know about casinos in that country, but I just hope they would just regulate it so they will not be having a problem, that also means tax for the government.

I agree with this proposition. I mean it is a win-win situation for both of the parties. People could gamble as long as they want legally and the government could get taxes that they could use and would help the country grow. It is better than these people finding a way, getting through a hole of a needle just to bet their money illegaly.

Illegal gambling takes place because there are people who take part in this and the users who continue to support it despite knowing it's illegal.
It's good to see that the government of Thailand is planning to take measures to stop illegal gambling and convert it into legal ones so that it benefits their nation but I hardly think that this would stop illegal gambling.
The owners will definitely find an alternative to continue illegal gambling unless the government is continuously tracing them and blacklisting the owners for regular investigation.

Basically if 70% adult are into illegal gambling should have made the government to raise eyebrow into it reform, there are indications that if the government of Thailand refuse to take this urgent action there will be more individuals at that age into gambling, which won't be good for the entire country. Having the necessary measurement "to tackle this problems of illegal gambling" will not only enhance government revenue generation but also making gamblers useful for themselves.

As far as I know gambling is not prohibited in thailand,  there will always be illegally operational game that are being run by some people and they are avoiding tax and due to the pandemic I think they are avoiding some health protocol as well, so given this thing aside from they should strengthen their law they need to put extra fine so that people will be afraid to make move about that, if they don't want to register it in the governement they should pay taxes, so even there will be some pandemic they can run it, maybe not physically but thru online.

Those people who are patronizing illegal casino I think is avoiding extra fees that a government legal casino ask or they have something that they are avoiding from legal casinos. That's right, Government should be actively tracking down illegal casinos especially if they know that the gamblers population is increasing in their country. It will be a good source of income for the country for just collecting a gambling tax revenue.

Basically illegal casinos will only harm the government in term of gambling tax revenue. There is a fair amount of money flowing into gambling and if there are lot of illegal casinos operating there the government should take precautions and close them down if they don't comply with the rule. I believe the gambling population in a country will continue to increase all the time, even in countries where gambling is illegal.

In principle, it is also an indirect message that there are problems with criminal organizations or the mafia, because they are the ones who rule a large part of underground gambling. So in order to drive back illegal gambling, these criminal associations must first be smashed. A few private people who meet regularly to play poker are certainly not the problem.

Where there's illegal gambling, there's serious cases of criminality, underground syndication, and the likes. If Thailand wants to and is willing to take these guys down for good, they have to aim directly for the head, otherwise these crime groups will just disband and then in due time resurface with a new MO. They will just be wasting time, money and precious police force in not aiming to eradicate the root cause of the problem. People will gamble where there's an avenue for it. Regardless if it's illegal or licensed. Moreso, these illegal gambljng dens thrive because they allow the common joe to bet, whereas high stakes gambling are only for the rich.

Yes, there are always people who support illegal gambling for a simple reason, it's profitable. Also, for some gamblers the fact they are gambling illegal makes even a bigger thrill. Usually there is also a big amount of money involved without any limitations or checks where it comes from.
It's not so easy for any government to turn something illegal into legal. I don't know what kind of methods and measures they use but that should be something that would make people aware that illegal isn't good for them or economy of their country and of course there should be quite sharp fines and punishment for organisers of illegal gambling. Still there are no guarantees for success.

Isn't it obvious that people are expecting a profit that's why they gamble? Legit or illegal gambling, no difference in terms of probability to win.

The reason why people support illegal gambling is not that it's profitable but it's because of borderless and not much restriction. That's why while government thinks of a way to shut down illegal ones, they should also go after the people that support it.

Knowing that gambling is banned in Thailand, I think people just wanted to gamble or use their money to bet but it is illegal so they find their ways. I agree that they should just legalized gambling as it is a good source of taxes for them. If they will be really strict with these regulations, they will be taking the hard way dealing with these people.

Legalizing gambling would be the most logical thing to do. The reason is that with internet being available in every nook and corner of the world, banning casinos doesn't make any sense. Gamblers can simply use online casinos and participate in various games using the internet. The only difference here is that the government will lose tax money, which they would have otherwise gained. The rich gamblers can even catch a flight and travel to countries where gambling is legal. The governments need to get out of "banning this, banning that" mentality.

People still has the choice not to abide the rules in taxation if they want to, remember that revolts can happen and the government continuously oppressing their citizens will only result in a dumpster fire of chaos and unrest, you can't trust the Congress or the officials if your country is ruled by corrupt people.

Probably, not. They can have the choice not to pay taxes but it was against the law, authorities will pursue you.
Talking about corruption, I don't know if there is someone, a country had left not doing this. They have the reason why they push themselves on the position and that to take advantage of their citizen. And to say about the stoppage of illegal gambling, that could be a hard thing to do, IMO.

I don't think that this raids on illegal gambling will last because this illegal gambling houses are a source of funds for this corrupt officials, this is just a show to distract the people from the real problems. People do have a choice on who governs them, it's just that they do not realize the power they have, remember French and Bolshevik revolutions, corruption of the monarchs were destroyed by the people. I do not think that it is acceptable to have a reason for exploiting your citizens, no matter how you explain it, corruption is corruption, there is no in betweens.

You make a reasonable point but if you understand the Thailand government viewpoint about gambling you will know that, they don't totally ban gambling though they only support betting on horse races and the government sponsored lottery and I don't why they supported horse race betting and ignore others form of gambling. But people can still gambling online freely despite the Thai government viewpoint which I believe it still fair than the people gambling in an overcrowded place during the season of pandemic.
I think the organizers/owners should be arrest for not limiting the numbers of their customers.

Thailand Government only do care about the count of a positive Covid patient that they may count on when these street gambling or illegal gambling that will gather people in one place happen and also every country had only one goel and it is to lessen much better to vanish virus and stop the spread of it. However, i know the sense of being a gambler they may gamble as long as they wanted even if it is illegal.

Yes, every gambler is ready to gamble whenever he feels thirsty for it and it very understandable that the Thailand want to curb the spread of the covid 19 virus and they see the increase in illegal gambling as the cause of the increase in Covid 19 victims which is the reason why they seek regulations to tackle illegal gambling and for them to achieve their purpose huge measures is needed which the reason why I said they need to atrest the organizer of illegal gambling caught.

In my opinion, the Thai government should solve the problem of illegal gambling not to be banned. It only makes gambling addicts look for other
ways to be able to play gambling. The best solution is to legalize gambling, and the government can benefit from the taxes imposed on casinos
and gamblers. Moreover, the circulation of money in the world of gambling is quite large, I'm sure government can provide a sizable tax income too.

Can learn from countries that have already legalized gambling, so the Thai government must be able to think again whether there are more negative
or positive effects if it bans gambling. Because the good thing is gambling must be regulated, not banned.

I think that is also a concern.

If there will be a lot of illegal gambling happening there, that also means that there are a lot of health protocols that are not followed at that place. There will be no regulation of the protocol and could cause more casualties in this pandemic. I guess it is really best if they will just let it regulate, what's with that tax they are so afraid of than hide and be jailed?

That is because the spread of Covid still high, and there is a new case almost every day which we do not know when it will reduce or stop. Maybe their reason is to reduce the number of infected people playing gambling in one big place and the crowd because that can give a chance to get a new case. People will not know who is healthy and who is infected, and the asymptomatic people will be dangerous for the other people in the crowd. We can hope that every country will concern about this in reducing the new case in their country.

This is surprising, because Thailand is one of the countries where the infection rate is very much under control. The number of new daily cases is in three digits and till now the death rate per million is 1.1 (compared to 1378 in the United States). Thailand is a prime destination for international tourists and I don't think that a majority of them are averse to gambling. When many of the neighboring nations (Cambodia, Laos.etc) are taking steps towards popularizing gambling, Thailand seems to be moving in the opposite direction. This can harm their tourist inflow in the long term.

I strongly agree with this.

Illegal gambling sites or even physical ones are hard to be exterminated in the world of legal gambling. Even if you successfully shutdown one illegal gambling site, you should expect that it'll be revive in their backed up domain, so on and so forth. And for the physical ones, locating them would be hard since most of them are always in the underground, and being handle by drug lords, gangs, that has a strong ties inside the police authority or Government, that's why they are untouchable.

The only reason why the Government are trying to shut them down because they are the tax evasive citizens, that earns a lot of money in an illegal way while the Government don't get anything from them but headaches.

I think the Thailand government will anticipate that, and they will figure out how to keep their tourist comes to their country. But in this pandemic, maybe it is better to control offline gambling first, especially on the traditional gambling place because I think that will have so many people gather in one place to play the game. If the government succeeds in controlling that, I think they will still allow offline gambling to operate. But for the illegal gambling place, maybe they need to find another way to communicate to the owner.

I disagree with the internet as not all of us could use the internet unlike the rich and middle-class people would do. In our province, we are still having a hard time dealing with the internet even with just the signals of our phones. The more they are getting their laws or rules more strict, the better these people would evade them.

Really? Where are you from?
How are you connected to internet, you are using a 3G or 4G mobile network with a smartphone?   

Also add the fact that not because it is legal means that it is a good thing to do, and it doesn't make any sense as well that if a Government will do such thing but will not gain any benefit from it. Government needs taxes to sustain the whole country's needs, and they just have to choose which gambling casinos or sites they need to legalized to prevent poverty.

That's why physical casinos are for wealthy people only, for the poor people or even middle class stop entering such gambling world because they can't afford it. However, people still do gamble in their own ways so basically it's just all nonsense if we're not going to cooperate.

That is never going to work, many of those that are gambling in those establishments do not really even know the place where they are gambling does not have the necessary permissions by the government to operate, it is not your job as a gambler to see if the place in which you are gambling has everything in order, most people that gamble only want to get some fun and are not really interested in the profits that they can have, they do not want another headache in their lives so I think it is a complete mistake to try to punish them when they are not the ones that are violating the law directly.

And the governments take that into consideration, it's not like it will be a gambler's job to seek legal casinos, the whole point of these restrictions is to limit access to black market casinos and thus eliminate the possibility of people using those websites. The major problem (and the reason why despite the given number of legal casinos people still go for illegal ones) is that the government isn't really a professional in the gambling sphere, so they can't provide people with decent alternatives.
Also, I think the govs are shutting down the black market not in order to punish gamblers, but simply because there's no tax on such casinos, which means no profit for the government, which is a potential threat to the economical stability of a certain country.

definitely, govt cant get tax the black market. but the govt should reconsider how they approach the gambling community. they can always legalise it in a way, it is not too taxing for the owners as we are still in crisis. these business owners will be forced to follow the legal process in order to continue their business. so it is a win-win situation for the govt and business owners. they need to thrive both during these times to support their people.

Yes you are right it's a "form of gambling" as you say but for me it's not really pure gambling.
Usually you can't even decide how much you will bet on your ticket, the price is fixed.

Lottery is completely upon luck. We take the ticket, and wait for the announcement of the winner through random pick of lotteries. Yes, lotteries have a fixed value and there is no need to risk big amounts to receive big return as we do with casinos. Different forms of lotteries are in usage around the globe. As users stated, lottery is just a game, which is being played regularly by people depending on luck nothing more than that. There are rare incidents where people have made calculations on the buying of tickets and succeeded.

The fact that they did some calculations does not mean that it had any impact on the result. Many players think that they have a "system" and they will beat the lottery/casino, but in fact everything is going as it should go according to math. I do not mean those cases where errors were made in the lottery number generator or in the casino software.

I think the owners better not be forced to follow the legal process, but the government can provide a solution that will provide them with benefits by getting legal with the government. It is like legalizing their business by following the government's procedure so that they can run their business without worry. Legal can prevent bribing corrupt officials, and they can give the money for paying the tax. The government needs to find ways to benefit illegal gambling to follow them, and the government can get more taxes. If much illegal gambling can follow the government's suggestions, it can give the country the income to help them survive in these times.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there is no way for illegal casinos to be legalized in Thailand, because only horse races and national government lottery is allowed there. Any other kind of casino game won't be able to be legalized even if the owners paid the necessary taxes to run the business. It would be a win-win situation if the government was open-minded regards gambling activity.

---

Thailand government is so strict about this subject that individuals can't own more than 120 playing cards. :o
If you own 3 decks you are already in trouble!
Playing Cards Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_Cards_Act#:~:text=The%20Playing%20Cards%20Act%20is,registered%20by%20the%20Excise%20Department.&text=The%20Playing%20Cards%20Acts%20are,laws%20dating%20back%20to%201935.)

i believe that a country somewhere in Europe also has this same issue last year? when they are extending the Illegal gambling fight in their region?

though i cant remember it well and cant find the thread i'm sure European country is also moving in this actions.

Thailand Make it better in having this measures because many countries in Asia specially those who had Chinese Businesses or operators comes with illegal businesses also.

I think it isn't an issue of money or anything, just of morality itself. Not from Thailand, but I suppose by the fact that they haven't legalized allowing casinos under their country, it seems to me that the government there generally frowns upon it, whether it could bring profit or not isn't really a matter they would take into account. Although I do agree with legalizing it instead of letting it stay as illegal, it also means that they basically gave in to the community of gamblers, which may paint them as an irresponsible government (at least, in their own eyes).

The big problem is that we can't travel at the moment. If you really wanted to gamble you could have just gotten on to a plane to Macau and gamble legal. But right now we are stuck at home and using a casino locally might be illegal. So we are kind of forced into online gambling even though its illegal. Which makes it very hard for the government to control the Internet.

The problem is that the Internet becomes more and more regulated every year and soon it will be necessary to create some new protocols for decentralized interaction of people. The existing methods for bypassing blocking are no longer enough. Perhaps the crypto will be the prototype for this new network.

Perhaps, the government can educate them about the danger of playing gambling. Instead of saving their money to buy their daily needs, they just use it for playing gambling, which they can't always win. It needs awareness from people themselves to know that playing gambling needs responsibility to control themselves and not use the money for their needs. By legalizing illegal gambling, the government can get more income from the gambling business, which can be their additional income source.

Casinos are illegal not only in Thailand but in many countries of the world gamblers gamble to meet their social and economic needs if you think from the person's place there are many benefits to gambling in a casino. There is no limit to participation or income in gambling there is no time constraint there is no such thing as hard work that is a person can earn a lot of money without going through any difficult rules. But the reality is that without gambling skills it can be detrimental and you can lose everything and become your own it is easier to deal with if the government has legitimacy.

Censorship if the government insist to add more strict rules is very possible, Internet access are not exempted if the government really take it seriously.

Gambling though is a big market  and adding more rules to really combat those illegal facilitator needs to have a strong iron hands.

If Thai's leadership are serious about this, they can use all channels of the government to start tracking those onshore and offshore gambling activities government if they are really going to bring this down have all the means and power inside their own country.

If you're talking about morality driven by religious views in the country - then Thailand shouldn't be against gambling. In Thailand, the vast majority of people follow Buddhism, which, unlike Islam, doesn't forbid gambling.

If you mean morality in the sense that the government takes care of citizens and worries about their financial state, emotional health, then why don't they ban alcohol instead? It literally kills people, undermines their health, and accounts for numerous accidents. As for me, alcohol abuse is way more common and much worse, than gambling.

It's kind of a difficult situation for the government of Thailand, while I can understand why they may want to close down casinos that are not following their regulations a good compromise could be to allow those casinos to keep operating as long as they began to pay their taxes and they followed all the necessary regulations that every single casino needs to adhere in the country, but we must understand that many if not all of those that operate those illegal casinos are not interested in complying and if you give them a chance they will just disappear and create another casino as soon as they have the chance.

If they having a problem in quarantine to prevent the COVID-19 from spreading the virus in Thailand they should definitely close every possible business that is not necessary just to contain or quarantine the virus. But they should manage to close all of the illegal gambling first before closing the legal gambling businesses. Legal gambling casinos might comply to open but it seems good since the government is thinking to close this casino because of the pandemic in other countries mostly governments would just care about the money.

Is it true that 70% of all adults in Thailand are gamblers? If the statistic is true then definitely Thailand is a gamblers country. The existing problem of their government about illegal gambling is an indication that they are lacks with their regulations, but if the government wants to take advantage of the situation they can legalised those gamblings or casinos and impose proper tax from them.

Well blocking sites and messengers will never help because new ones are created daily and you cannot block all the new sites. Personally if you ask me I do not see any problem if people earning money are throwing in on the casino tables because it is their earned money and they should be allowed to do whatever they want.

Crypto has helped illegal gambling a lot, I am not saying bitcoin was made for illegal purposes but because of the decentralized nature it somehow helped fueling the illegal gambling. Even today with so much control one can just make an account on any of the gambling casinos, make their bets and if the casino is honest they don't even ask any questions to approve massive amounts of withdrawals.

I don't know about 70% of the population, but a lot of people do gamble. In the history of Thailand there were times when gambling was legalized, but it did not last long. The Thai government is not interested in taxes as their main goal is to eradicate gambling, which should eventually lead to a reduction in the illegal income of criminal gangs.

Precisely. There are ways to reduce gambling, and if the stats are correct circa 70% of the entire population being involved in gambling, then this is clear call for immediate measures.

Without knowing the situation, gambling in many parts of the world is tightly regulated and if Thailand was to take control over their situation, then it would need to take careful steps considering that the majority of the people will not be in favour.

Gambling is one of those trades that you can't eradicate. Humans have been indulging in gambling for many thousands of years and just because the government makes it illegal, it won't vanish. If the involvement of criminal gangs is the main issue, then the government must work in that direction. Banning gambling all together in order to combat the gangs sounds like disproportionate as well as inefficient response. Essentially the government is trying to hide its incompetence in dealing with the gangs.

That would be really hard to accomplish.

The same as corruption, I don't think it would be that easy to be able to take down these illegal gambling as there are a lot of people that for sure back them in these kinds of activities that might be a member of the government. In our country, gambling is not illegal but there are this illegal cockfighting and some of them could just get out because an officer knew them or someone close to these officers talk them out for their freedom.

What do you mean that in your country gambling is illegal ? but Thailand only extend their measures from the Illegal gambling sites and stations but it is not illegal totally.
As long as legal gambling why does the government cares? they are only curious now because of the illegal gambling and  not the whole institutions .
People cannot do anything if the law will be implemented , people are tend to follow.

I'm from the Philippines. I live in a province and our province doesn't entirely have mobile reception. Last November, a typhoon hugely affected our province and here in our place, the cell tower fell down. We don't have a signal for 3 months and just today, they fixed the cell tower and we just regained our signal.

When they are still fixing it. We usually go to this place on the mountainside just to access the internet. It is really hard especially for the students and for those people that needed it. We are far from the town where the signal is strong and we just have these places where the signal is strong and most of them are on the mountain or in a river dike which is far from here.

70% of adult population were a huge number and Thailand would really get through a lot to tackle the problems of illegal gambling in their country. Gambling is addicting and no doubt that people will going to do the prohibited in their law to gamble. And to be honest it is a reality and even i could witness those kind of illegal gambling here in our country, in our society. Our local governments has a law that prohibiting a cockfighting but then those gamblers couldn't be controlled.

Whatever steps are taken by the Thai government, but completely eradicate gambling will not work because such activities are conducted away from the eyes of the government and control it is almost unreal. To conduct a search for the location of a gambling house, its elimination with the arrest of the founders can take months of work and to organize it in another place requires no more than a week.

We cannot expect 100% of the eradication because somewhere or other people would find it or will gamble in their own means only. Since they are attracted so much then it is bigger chance that it might not stop though restriction and strict law will help in reduction which is what eve the government officials would be looking.

Well, not only Thailand, almost all countries are facing underground gambling activities, and despite the strict precautions, gambling continues to be very widespread in society, psychology of wanting to search for losses and gambling addiction has not really been solved yet. I think when the government bans more, gambling gets bigger, why don't the government try to legalize it as an activity, a service for many people? With strict tax regulations and control over the player's loss to the extent allowed, Thailand will surely solve the illegal gambling situation.

I think we are in the same country.

Our local government banned cockfighting especially those that are doing their meetups privately. And with the pandemic that we have right now, it is prohibited with a double case in your hands if caught. Still, there are a lot of people doing that and the sad part is that even teenagers are going in there and my parents told me about a underage boys caught by the police in that meetup.

In my country, illegal gambling, prostitution, child trafficking, drug abuse quite possibly graft and corruption are all played by the same hands within the same syndicate groups. Thailand government should spend more time and money in acquiring intelligence which may lead them to the roots of the problem like what my country did, otherwise you can't expect it to be fixed.

They may have leads of where are those illegal gambling operators can be found. It's just if the assigned people can't also be trusted and just allows it for bribe, there's no hope for it.

Just as you've said, a lot of bad things happen and we don't have an idea what exactly is the real situation. But that's a good initiative to recognize these problems.

I doubt the government will be able to completely eradicate illegal gambling. Strict actions will only prevent them for few days or month, later on they will again pop up. The biggest problem is that these locations are now turning into COVID hotspot, which for me is a big issue. Therefore for the time being the government should take strict action against them.

Unfortunately this is not the way it happens, governments for the most part always end up punishing the same people over and over again and those are the ones that comply with the law, so while casino owners that are responsible and that obey the law are losing a fortune while they keep their doors closed, illegal casinos keep operating and getting profits as now they do not have the competition of legal casinos, they do not have to pay taxes and they only have to bribe a few corrupt politicians to keep their doors open while the pandemic ravages the country.

It is probably the intuition of the illegal gamblers by not to tell the truth of course because it will use it against them. It is so sad to think of the fact that many people are started to get into illegal gambling just because they are not contented to the earnings or  profit they made in just simply playing simple and legal gambling yet many people always thought of the greed of having a large amount of earnings. We all know that our government are actually aware of it but rather not to focus on it because at some point they are also part of it sometimes because they can gain a lot of money there. It is my opinion and thinking.

I think we can not blame them as they want to get more money for their lives, but unfortunately, they use the wrong way and never know if they can make money or lose that money. Greed and having a big passion for making money will be on their mind, and if they can not realize that wrong way, they will drag deeper without getting a way out. Maybe the government still focuses on solving the pandemic's problem, but before this pandemic attacks, I think the government is already thinking about it.

Indeed insane number of population indulged in gambling if that number if right and it shows the culture more than anything of the country, if there were enough jobs people won't be involved into gambling and more specifically illegal gambling so much. never heard of any crisis in Thailand and in fact used to think of Thailand as a good tourism country but this has changed my view.

Yes, imposing taxes on illegal gambling and making it legal would be a good choice because that makes gambling less popular and if still the insane number of gamblers exist then the government will earn huge taxes at least.

Given the current situation, lesser job opportunities, and most recreational activities prohibited, it is unavoidable for people to find other means to earn and have fun. Illegal gambling activities also increase in our country and it even caused a break out during the lockdown period. No matter what amendment the government does gambling operators will always find ways to continue their business. It is impossible to eradicate such activity since some illegal gambling businesses are handled by those who are in position or those who have influence, this is the case in our country which I think is the same case as other countries.

Yes illegal activity cannot be eliminated so easily, it is much harder this time because of pandemic, I think they should create another branch of their government in order for them to stop it and local government organization will need to strengthen the rules and regulations, many illegal gambling has been created this 2020 because many people wants to have an extra money or they just got bored and they want to gamble if that 70% of the population is gambler if that is true it will be a serious problem maybe they already increase the taxes on its legal casinos that's why many people created their own so that they will be exempt from taxes.

Regulated gambling industry can be a big boon to the economy. It will make sure that a majority of those who indulge in gambling are the rich, who can afford to spend their money in casinos. Also, the gambling industry employs a lot of people and in case this sector is regulated then it can help on brining down the unemployment rate and create a lot of direct/indirect jobs. And finally, if the industry is legalized and regulated, then it can give a boost to the tourism industry as well.

Which shows a lack of understanding about human nature, it is impossible to stop people from gambling and any kind of prohibition will just create black markets in which people are simply going to be scammed or be abused, if they instead legalize the industry not only they can obtain taxes out of it but they can also protect their players, to me this shows very clearly that it is way better to regulate a market than it is to prohibit it which is what they are trying to do.

Anything which is under prohibition attracts a lot of curiosity and the people are more drawn in to it. Ideally they should make the gambling industry legal and regulate it. Also, prohibitions don't work nowadays, when the industry is perfectly legal in neighboring countries. The Thai citizens can just travel to the neighboring nations and visit the casinos which are operating there. Now the only losers are the Thai government, who will lose out of the tax revenues from the casinos and job creation.

Instead  of stopping, better to find ways or solutions in implementing rules that will benefits

both sides, battling from illegal gambling would be a tough job but negotiating and have a good open forum on this

matter may help, providing better and proper law that will address this issue  is  better in solving illegal gambling activities

from the government jurisdiction.


Thai government needs to consider every factors before making any rules that may pushed their citizen to travel away just to gamble,
 imagine those possible taxes that instead the government enjoy it will be move away from their jurisdiction.

illegal or not, people will not stop gamble all of a sudden. but the Thailand government has to start somewhere that these casinos will negotiate til they could come up an agreement.

they would prefer to continue their business than starting over again it more manageable for both parties. Both are goin to be happy that way, the governments gets what they want and the casino as well.

Illegal means they don't have the license to operate and they don't report to the government, what the government would only want is to monitor the gambling sites if it's operating within the standards set by the regulators and to get the right amount of tax for the government.

They should comply as illegal gives a high risk when operating this kind of business.

See the List of the best Asian Gambling Sites here: http://sportstatist.com/list-of-asian-gambling-sites-eng/

Funny you mentioned the pandemic because I think, the people who organize illegal gambling are very resourceful at this times right now of social distancing and lockdowns. I just saw on facebook the other day a live post and it is a cockfight being televised live. The bets are even shown on the screen. I was amused at first and just continued my merry browsing on social media but then I realized that there is gambling involved and it made me wonder how they can place their bets on facebook or maybe on some other website.

I've seen this everyday well in cockfight it was totally illegal when you don't have papers but it seems legit because commentators always said those legal operators of cockfight and that's where they getting their live battle well when it comes to bet there's an application that you can visit where an "agent" will invite you so you could play and there's are ways for you whenever you want to cash in and bitcoin is a payment method too because i've been playing this but it's not quite entertainment coz i felt bad for those cock fighting to death , and there a lot of circumstancing fake live with cockfight and now that's illegal because they collecting videos and they will live in into their own page this is the time that the owner knew which cock is going to win because when you're going to live in facebook you can always set it into delayed and that's people will be lossing.

Exactly, prohibitions towards gambling could have worked decades ago but when you can gamble from your smartphone in a casino that is located in another country or in a cryptocurrency casino then prohibiting gambling does not make sense, can you imagine the money the government will have to sped to try to make people comply with such law? It is way better to allow it and regulate it, that way governments get taxes out of the industry and they can use part of that money to create campaigns so people can gamble responsibly, to me that seems like the best option but it seems the government of Thailand does not agree.

The problem with governments is that it is headed by politicians and bureaucrats who are in their 60s and 70s and they don't have an idea about how modern technology works. They still believe in the old fashioned way, where they would like to ban anything that they don't like. I hope they will soon realize that things have changed. Intelligent governments, such as those in the EU/US have realized that they can't ban gambling, porn.etc and have moved towards regulation. Only the third world countries are still living in denial.

I think what they should do is to try to look for other alternatives for people to get back into their business so both the government and the citizens of Thailand will strive due to the cause of Covid. I think the main reason people go for illegal gambling it’s because it is easier for them to earn just as much as it is easier for them to lose their money as well. I also don’t think illegal gambling will ever stop for as long as people find ways to gamble, like just by using your phone and etc.

Imagine how good the government if those who are running  it  have much fresher mindsets.


Younger generations who can adopt on what's happening around, it's really applicable since there are many rulings that supposed to have
better solutions. Gambling does have lots of channels, combatting against those who illegally facilitates those kinds of activities
is tough since there are so many ways to continue doing it without a trace, allowing it is not totally joining but finding much right
for the best interest of two  parties.

So what are the steps the government of Thailand are taking to "tackle" this illegal gambling problem? I have seen countries where illegal gambling is widely practiced just because of how the government handles the gambling scenario. They make gambling illegal (but why? As long as an adult is gambling, what's wrong with that? Adults can take their own decision and are grownup that knows that actions has consequences) or heavily regulated making it impossible to get license. Hence underground casinos are the only option left for them.
Maybe they should try easing gambling law?

In the US, they have states where gambling is legal (such as Nevada) and some state where it is illegal (such as Utah and Texas). Those who want to gamble just travel to Nevada and visit the casinos there. Or they need to visit the casinos which are located in various Indian reservations (which are not under federal law). The advantage here is that all the gambling revenue stays within the country. What happens in Thailand is that the citizens either need to depend upon illegal casinos, or they need to travel to countries such as Singapore. The government loses tax revenue from the casinos.

Since we are talking about the taxes, so this means that the government are only concern on taxes they could possible collect if casinos are legally operating? The fact that there's a lot of illegal casinos, that means the government is not so strict in implementing their rules, not only they are losing tax revenue but it also affect the standard of living of the people who can be addicted easily as gambling are not being limited.

In third world countries, the biggest obstacle for legalizing alcohol, gambling, porn, weed, prostitution.etc comes from the religious bodies. Ideally religion should be kept out of politics, but in many of the developing nations that is not the case. Even if the government realize that there is benefit in legalizing and regulating these sectors, they can't do much about it due to the opposition from the religious bodies. A good example is that of the Philippines. The government can't even implement family planning measures, because the Roman Catholic church opposes it.

In illegal gambling, people do not have many regulations as in legal gambling. They are playing gambling in that place because maybe the Thailand government still close the legal casino or limit the player who can come and playing gambling. But no matter if that is a legal casino or an illegal casino, their chance to lose their money will be the same, and they can lose bigger in the illegal casino because they can forget their time to playing gambling.

I agree this is a generational problem, politicians and the laws for the most part are always behind the times, however new technologies are coming so fast that a delay of just a few years is now the equivalent of a decade, gambling is here to stay and it is going nowhere, politicians may like their citizens to not participate in the activity but this is not the reality they are facing, so instead of forbidding it they should think about how to make the best of this situation and it is obvious to me regulation is the way to go, as this will protect people by regulating the casinos, casinos will not have to hide their activities anymore and will be protected by the laws as well and taxes will come to the government, this is an scenario in which everyone wins and yet they do not see it this way.

Online gambling is banned in thailand the government does not issue any licenses that allow operator VAT sites to gamble online in thailand. In reality the country has never considered such a possibility as worldly forms of gambling are generally banned despite the ban local players enjoy foreign services there are many online gambling sites that take thai players, although a few of them are available in thai. At the same time the ministry of information and communication technology periodically tries to control the situation these will be banned if the government imposes taxes on them.

The steps they are going to take is going to be the same as any other country did with their illegal gambling problem, implement it full throttle for around half a year and then it will just subside and the implementation will be completely forgotten and the illegal gambling will pop-up again. The problem with illegal gambling is that those businesses do not pay any taxes so government will go for them because they needed that tax so badly and some other reasons for making gambling illegal is religion or morals of that country..

Yeah.. the same thing is happening here as well.. Governments ban whatever they don't like, but the demand is still there. So the business just moves underground, away from the surveillance of the authorities. And once it moves underground, the criminal gangs get involved and there will be competition and violence between various groups for dominance. Anyway, one thing is certain. Whatever profits are generated from this, none of it will end up with the government.

And I forgot the angle of corruption when it comes to this kind of things, this underground businesses are proliferating despite authorities cracking down these businesses because corrupt politicians and police chiefs are on the payroll of this illegal business which in turn gives protection from crack downs. The addition of violence is the worst thing that can happen for these underground businesses, innocents are caught in the crossfire and the taxes that could have been taken from this businesses if they were legitimate could have make bigger projects.

How can this be stopped when it is the reality of Life in government? Imagine you only need to "Do Nothing" and then you'll be in payroll with the amount you cannot earn for whole year but this syndicate will pay you for just a month of keeping silent  and nothing to act?
this is why in every government there will always be a Crook , i have seen government in my own eyes and yes , there will always be someone that will accept under the table money , and they will never end .

That's how the things work. In India, many years back the government increased the excise duty on gold imports. The irony was that the increase was not done in order to boost the tax revenues, but to help the smuggling gangs. Smugglers usually purchase gold from UAE and then smuggle it to India. For every 1 kg of gold, they receive profits of around $7,000. There were rumors that a part of this profits end up with the government ministers, just to make sure that the high level of excise duty is maintained. Anyway, this year the duty was reduced from 12% to 8% and there seems to be a decline in smuggling. The same happens with gambling as well. For the cops and the politicians, it is beneficial to ban gambling. Then they can demand bribes from those who operate the illegal casinos.

Not everytime is happy day with those scalawags officials and there corruption into that area will be busted once the official won in the election have will power to stop any illegalities especially on the gambling side. Although it's hard for to fight this scenery since they make this as normal activity but once there are leaks that will lead to pointing the corrupt official and other practices for sure this activities will be lessen in future.

This has been happening in different countries such as Cambodia. As for me, the government couldn't stop people from gambling and countries with gambling restrictions would only make their people commit underground businesses and illegal gambling just to pursue the things that they want. That's actually one of the reasons why some gamblers travel to other countries just to play freely.

But, the money was never going to the government from these illegal sites and bookies anyway so the best they can do is just try and ban all the illegal stuff that happens.

I don't understand one thing honestly. How do gamblers actually cash their winnings. I understand they might make bets and win money in BTC let's say and withdraw without any problems from the casino. But once they cash the BTC for fiat, they will have to answer from where they got this money and have to pay taxes on them. So how do these guys avoid them always confuses me.

Even if they take the PayPal route by converting their BTC into Paypal and withdrawing to the bank, then still the money comes to the bank at the end of the day and you have to pay taxes and answer the tax authorities about how you earned it.

Also, a good reason to rule it again and try what would be the best thing to do.

Considering what are the potential benefits that the government may gain if they'll try to work it out, there are positive and negative
effects but balancing it in favor of the people, taxes that will be implemented is really huge and with the pandemic, it can help a lot
in terms of financial usages.

You are being a bit too simplistic here: how many people can easily cross the border to just go gamble in another jurisdiction? Also, I do not think that is even necessary.
I went to Thailand a few years ago and I remember how illegal gambling (not mentioning all other sort of illegal things) were popular among thai people.

Many of the countries allow international travellers to carry up to $10,000 in cash with them (that limit may vary from country to country). Purchasing Bitcoin is going to be one of the most attractive options. Also, there are other options, such as purchasing gold coins, luxury items.etc. Another option is to purchase prepaid debit cards, which require no KYC. There are hundreds of options and unless the individual in question wins millions of USD in prizes, it is not going to be an issue. 

Correct but as a crypto enthusiast, I guess I would prefer to carry bitcoin as its safer and untraceable. Debit card is also good though but crypto is the best, as long as you understand its volatility and know how to manage it, you can always carry as much as you want, even $1 million usd as it's all in your wallet.

Now aside from the issue with big illegals, we also have to recognize the problem with small scale gambling in rural areas. I think if we are going to get a somewhat different perspective on this, is that the government might not be able to tackle all of them, especially the small ones. I mean as long as there will be people willing to bet or gamble, there would be people willing to set up operations in their locale. Legitimize, and you will not have any problems at all.

As long as you understand how Bitcoin works there's no worries about buying it even in a million if you are so lucky to win it from any types of gambling, you'll simply cross boarders without any trace.

You'll be enjoying your money after moving back to your own country and exchange your Bitcoin to your chosen fiat.
It's much simple with Bitcoin if you are aware with volatility, for sure there are already lots of gamblers who understand this and already
seeing the good potential of this system for their benefits.

According to your point, it is also necessary to emphasize that transactions with Bitcoin are very fast, what you should be careful is that when you make the change to FIAT in banks it is likely that they will ask you the origin of the funds, it is always good to do changes to FIAT with amounts not so large. When there are countries that prohibit so much, you must be smarter to make each transaction. Many governments have control over the banks, and that is why they can even imprison, only by lifting any type of law against the person.

Small group of locale continuously doing their betting or gambling session despite of the strict rules of the governmentbthat gambling was prohibited was a much more difficult to handle kind of case rather than taking an action to a big gambling businesses right. I bet, people who used to be a bettors or gambler couldn't be controlled and they will going to find its way to play gambling with or without the permission of their government. I am agreeing in the fact of legitimizing gambling or betting because if ever any gambling session they can collect a taxes be it locale of big group and it can help the country's economic problem.

There problem is illegal gambling, therefore we can assume that they are already regulating gambling but the implementation is weak. Maybe they just have to improve on that part, strict implementation so those who are illegally operating will be stop and the revenue of the government in coming from taxes will increase if they can influence effectively those running illegal gambling to legitimize themselves.

Really that you want to improve regulations to collect more taxes from small bettors in rural areas? Probably these people live in financial difficult already and their only hobby after a day or week of hard work is to gamble a little bit with their local friends. If goverments are going to become more strict towards these gamblers they will become poorer than they already are or they will lose their happy hour activity.
There are another ways to increase revenue for governments without ruining some farmers fun time.

Bitcoin is safer and not untraceable if you don't use privacy wallet or tumbler and footing the OP explanation about how the illegal gambling is done, the possible payment used by the gamblers to the house fiat currency, gold coin, etc because the gambling are performed in person not online so the use crypto as payment may not be allowed and the chance of people contacting the virus is high, that's the reason why the Thailand government want to take a drastic measure.

Yes.. Bitcoin offers 100% anonymity, as long as you are storing your coins in a wallet which doesn't have any transactions made to KYC-enabled exchanges. Since it is a digital asset, you don't face any checks at the airport as well. It can't get any better than this. You can first convert fiat to BTC in Thailand and then travel to a country such as Cambodia, where gambling is legal. And there you can convert your BTC to fiat and visit the casinos. If you win big amounts, then once again you can convert it back to BTC and travel back to Thailand.

If these countries you've mentioned support crypto then it's easy to travel with huge money in your bitcoin wallet, but if not, it's still useless. Exchanging your bitcoin in countries where p2p is the most popular is not easy, especially if you are a tourist, correct me if I'm wrong.

A certain amount of risk is always there in P2P transactions. But as long as you limit your transactions with traders having a very good feedback score, you should be OK. Compared to the other options (such as carrying cash or prepaid cards), this option seems to be easier and safe for me. Obviously you need to be careful, to avoid falling in legal trouble and scams. But if you have the experience in traveling from one country to other for gambling, then I expect you to have some basic understanding of how things work there.

Would be much easier just to make gambling legal, that way you will avoid all the illegal gambling problems and you have more supervision.
You will also avoid money laundering that way.

I think they are not ready to make it legal there, the way you see countries like India, Sri Lanka, Philippines and many which do not appreciate any gambling activities, yet their citizens gamble on various online gambling platforms. We are very small scale people and discussing it here will not bring any changes there in Thailand. If people of Thailand want a change, they should file a petition and sign it and legally request their government to make gambling legal in their country.

Results of said petition or proposal wouldnt really give out guarantees or high chances for it to be approved because it all matters with governments decision in the end of the day.
Every country does have their own jurisdiction on things this is why we do see some citizens do really come out into a certain extent just for them to deal up with gambling
even though they do know that it is prohibited but still they decide to continue and embrace up the risk.They cant do anything as long it is banned or illegal then
they would really be playing with fire.

This doesn't guarantee that illegal gambling will be eliminated as even in some countries where gambling is legal, there are still a lot of illegal gambling establishments operating because the government can't monitor everything, it will only minimize the problem but it will not eradicate.

It is surprising they are so against gambling when it is an industry that it is impossible to stop, gambling can be done now from the comfort of your own home, there was a time before the Internet that if you wanted to gamble and it was forbidden you needed to go to the ugly part of your city and know where the underground casino was placed, but now you can gamble with just a few clicks, governments need to realize the change in the technology and instead try to regulate gambling on their countries, not only this will benefit their citizens but this will benefit them as they get more taxes as a result of such regulation.

Most of the third party services require KYC, and that is a massive handicap when you go against the law. One option is to go for virtual prepaid debit cards such as Ezzocard, if you want to convert your coins to cash. They require no KYC, up to a certain limit and may be more attractive than dealing with unknown traders in various P2P platforms. Anyway, in the end the gambler will chose the option which looks the most convenient and safe.

I think most problem is people in Buddhism religion are anti this solution.

May be not pass Public hearing from Buddhism anti

See just company sell alcohol drink like Thai Beverage move to trade on stock market at Singapore because people in Buddhism religion are anti
Why Buddhism not anti same

How can make people in Buddhism religion accept this gambling legal, Think, How solution.? please advice? how make them all agree with?
they don't understand just believe and anti.
85-95% Buddhism in Thailand.

People become government may be want to make it legal because all are business man
political still talk about casino or entertainment complex already
most business man are agree with gambling legal idea.
(I agree too) new generation people still fine with gambling legal

How to process without anti? (from both Buddhism and old fashion people)

Think easy but real world very hard.

^^^ You need to stop mixing religion in to this. Oriental religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism are much older than Semitic religions such as Christianity and Islam. But at the same time, they are much more progressive when compared to the Semitic religions. Take the case of countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Afghanistan and Iran. They became less progressive when the religion was changed from oriental to semitic.

Buddhism as such as no restriction against gambling, alcohol, porn or prostitution. If you compare countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos with Philippines and Malaysia, it becomes clear. If countries such as Thailand and Japan are trying to ban any of these sectors, then I would say that it is due to the Western influence. Because Asian countries have absorbed both good and bad from the Western culture.

I think the west is very divided on this matter. Mostly protestants are against gambling, but in catholic religion I can see it's not totally frowned up, because there are local communities which make saints' parties yearly where one of the main activities is the bingo game rewarding prizes which were donated prviously to those who play. In exchange, the money goes to the catholic church.
In fact Islamic countries seems much more strict about gambling than western countries and I think their influence affects countries like India and Pakistan.

It's the gamblers who will choose among those available channels to where they'll want to convert their money, those options that being provided are all considerable.

But in the end, the gambler itself will find suitalbel exchange that he saw he's comfort, KYC though interfere with gamblers who
love to keep their privacy, if there's kind of service though limitations are always required by every government jurisdictions,
considering p2p if taking such risk is very easy to convert your hold cryptos.

They can make it legal but if those operators are not willing to follow such laws, they have no choice but to hide and be in the chase because of being declared as illegal activity.
Also, the country or the place if there's a certain locale rule about gambling, even if they want to become legal, that will stop them from being legal if it's related to religious or traditional setup. In that way, they have to find a better place where they're welcomed.

These illegal operators will be very confident if they know the government has struggle in cracking down illegal gambling operators. It should start from the government or the regulators itself, if they showed their strict implementation, then those running illegal casinos will hesitate as they might face a serious consequences.

The government are doing their thing if we're going to talk about their side. But I think both have their own shortcomings in, the other isn't willing to follow.
While the other is doing their thing but not enforcing what they have to enforce. It varies from situation to situation and if they are strict, then that should make the operators stop and not willing cooperate and coordinate with them.

Once government do take out some action then you wont really be having any choice but to follow it or would totally be getting some violation or charges if you do really insist.
They wont really be making such laws or prohibitions if they do saw that it will really be giving out some negative effects.Illegal places do really exist in spite even if the government
of said country do really legalize gambling on where there are business owners will really be trying to evade taxation via means on building those illegal ones.
It is just right that those illegal or not registered will really be hunt down.

Better follow the government's regulations, else, forget to have gambling business. You are right, if you don't want to hide and run, just follow what is needed to legalized your business. It is tiring if you are always on the run. The government just want to get what is right as you also want to earn a living. You can also operate better if you know no one is after you.

Not only it will be many times more easier they will get some taxes out of gambling which are so needed during this time, due to the pandemic and the economic effects that it brought governments are facing a lot of trouble, they should not be wasting their time trying to apply such restrictions especially against a hobby like gambling that is enjoyed by the majority of people without any repercussions, and for the few that suffer from a gambling disorder they can use part of the money they get in taxes to help them to overcome those problems.

Here in India, the government has increased the taxes on alcohol. But no one seems to be having a problem with it, and most of us understand that the government revenues have gone down during the pandemic period and they need to increase the taxes. But in Thailand, the situation is different. They are using the pandemic as an excuse to further clamp down on the gambling industry. I am afraid that they are going in the wrong direction and this move will have just the opposite effect than what it is intended to bring.

If our business is legal, we don't have to worry about the government because they will protect us from the corrupt officials who want to ask for the "security money." By having legal gambling, it can also help the government get additional income to help the country's economy, which can also help all people in this pandemic. But still, it is hard to eliminate illegal gambling because many people are not telling the officials where that place is. They don't want to tell because they can bond with the government's regulation, and they need to pay the taxes. The owner of illegal gambling doesn't want to pay on that taxes, so they don't want to cooperate with the government and hide their business.

Yes, they will be hunted down by the government if they don't want to follow what's with the law says about their operation. I've understood why some of them don't want to cooperate and keeps on remaining illegal because of the tax and possible under the table money that the corrupt officials would ask them. Since it is related to gambling, it's not hidden anymore that there really are people who would milk them because they knew it that profits in gambling for the operators are quite good.

If someone is operating an illegal casino despite the ban, then you can assume that he'll be having powerful connections (either with the politicians or with the police officials). Corruption is very prevalent in Asian countries (perhaps with the exception of Japan and Singapore), and Thailand is no different. The only outcome from this ban is going to be the shift of gambling industry from legal or semi-legal sector to the underground sector. The ordinary gamblers will face an increased risk of becoming victims of fraud, and the government will lose valuable tax revenue.

That's already an illegal operation during the ban if they operate and even without the ban if they're not permitted for doing so, that's illegal which will make them pay more what the permission has to be paid. It is the common scene that we know when there are operations keep happening and if people knew that they're illegal and people come and by there, they would really be assumed that they're protected by high position officials.

Yes, when the government intervenes in the relations of adults, it always only hurts. If a person is considered mentally healthy, then he is free to decide where and how to spend his money. All these regulations and prohibitions waste taxpayers' resources and squeeze honest citizens into semi-criminal and criminal spheres.

I have to agree that corruption is rampant in most Asian countries.
You can easily bribe these government officials so you can go around the policies.
Their government may want to end this illegal gambling, but there are still officials that can be bribed.
And I don't think, they will be successful in tackling this problem.
They need to clean first the line up of their government officials.

Governments around the world like to show off their power and dominate their citizens by banning anything they don't like. Recently in India, the government has proposed to ban cryptocurrency, giving the flimsiest of the excuses. The reason is that they are afraid that popularity of cryptocurrency will weaken their control of the population. In the third world countries, many of the regimes would like to keep the populations under complete control, and that's when we see bans like the one for gambling which we have seen in Thailand.

The illegal casino operator having a powerful connection within the politician or police is not what's important footing what the OP said, I think keeping the people safe and also curb the spread of the virus (Covid-19) which is the reason why the Thailand government taking drastic measure to tackle illegal gambling.
Corruption prevalent in Asian countries because their government usually milk themself using the public fund but not in Asia alone it happens in every other country.

Government will do everything behind their power to make sure that they are in full control.

It's always that way, they are keeping their power as they don't want to see that their citizens are doing something behind them, in the  case of illegal gambling, it's better to sit upon and find whatever suitable solutions for best benefits by both the government and the people behind this business instead of suppressing why not try to find the proper way to both have compensation in return.

Here in our country some of the gambling owners if not a politics, a government official or a relatives of potician or have a friend and family member working on a government so even if the gambling related business were prohibited they can still operated. So far since the pandemic hitted our country there are still few casinos are opearted and occupied a 50% capacity but here we have a much prohibited gambling which is a cockfighting which gathered people but luckily they have found a new way to gamble via online.

Prohibited gambling cannot be stopped or eliminated because there are also really reprehensible and addictive followers.  Even though they know it is forbidden, they still go ahead.  And these other leaders in their area, even though they know it is forbidden, they still consent.  Officials who know nothing about the running of the town, but just sit in the office and receive a salary.  I also don't understand why they are still voting for people like this who are running in elections, they are doing nothing.  It should be reported to a higher authority.

Where there is a state, there is corruption (in civilized countries it just looks more decent). So if we want to get to the root causes and eliminate them, then we must reduce the power of the state and officials. I see no reason why the state should decide for me (an adult and capable) whether I can gamble or not.

I never really understood why some casinos are illegal and some are legal. Do not get me wrong, I know the laws, for example starting a casino right in front of New York is illegal, so they hide it, but we all know they are there, does anyone believe that there are zero illegal casinos in New York? But in Las Vegas you do it openly and do even commercials and advertisements of it as well, get famous people to appear there with money, do shows, and many other stuff. Why do we have that kind of difference?

If casino is something bad, then ban it on Las Vegas, if casino is allowed, then allow it on New York, if some sportsbooks in some nations are legal, why not dice? If dice is banned, why not sportsbooks? That is why I do not get semi-accepted casino world, some are legal and some are not, because of some weird way to limit what people gamble, that makes no sense.

Corruption in some countries is endemic even if gambling was allowed and you had everything in order it is not rare for public officials to show up and ask for a bribe and if you refuse then they can make your life very difficult or even revoke your casino license, but the case of Thailand is very unique they should be trying to legalize those illegal casinos instead of closing them down so they can keep generating jobs and they get taxes out of them, to try to outright close them is not a good idea as most likely the owners will open a new one just hours after they close one of those illegal casinos.

I get your Point mate but Banning a casino does not happening in favor of others , Like in countries that not allowed gambling they are banning all casinos but yet there are operations happening behind their back .

also in Las vegas banned casinos has cases for sure and those you mentioned being illegal are those who wanted to escape from paying taxes and other requirements of payments.

Well that's My views in this issue .

If they legalize the illegal casino, it will give way for that casino to stay away from the corrupt officials trying to ask about the money. If that official still trying to do that, they can report it to the government, and the government will protect them as the casino give big support in the taxes. Perhaps that will be the way in Thailand to reduce corruption as the government will strictly protect their legal business. The government doesn't want to lose their potential taxes from the casino to protect it from corrupt officials. The casino itself can feel safe from the corrupt officials trying to ask for the money.

Governments take their power from their citizens. If the citizens don't like these decisions that their government has made, then they should be voting for another one in the next elections. I am not sure how it works in India though. Is there a democracy? I don't really know. If voting won't work then it is probably better to leave that country.

We people can protest if they ban something that would affect a lot of people's interest, however, for gambling or crypto, I think there are only few people who are doing this and even if we make a protest, we are just a small voice that the government can't hear.

I would understand banning gambling, but crypto, I think that's too much as crypto does not make people loss money, it even give an opportunity to transact fast online in different part of the world, banning crypto is like letting these corrupt businessmen to continue to milk money from the people.

On paper India is a democracy. But democracy can be a burden, when the majority of the population is illiterate and can be manipulated with ease. The government first proposed a blanket ban on cryptocurrency ownership a few months ago. The cryptocurrency users immediately took out a massive campaign in the social media against the decision. The government supporters responded by starting their own social media campaign, painting cryptocurrency as something that is exclusively used by the criminals and the tax evaders.

Not only in India, same seems to be the problem with most of the countries that state themselves democratic. As in the above post only education can help providing true meaning for a democratic country. When majority of the population are illiterate governments will easily manipulate the outcome.

Reality hurts, as there are countries who called themselves democratic but since that their citizens are illeterate majority are being manipulated by the government.

It's sad true that government are capable of doing things like this, taking advantage of their advancement in terms of technology and
knowlegdes without people awarenes, they manage to completely manipulates and control things according to how they wanted it to be.

This is exactly the reason why poor countries remain poor, despite being resource rich. In most of the developed nations, people cast their votes on the basis of caste, religion and ethnicity. There may be better candidates, but they will only vote for their own group. In modern world, there is no point in banning hobbies such as gambling. With so many online gambling sites around, it is simply impossible to implement the ban. But the government don't care and neither do the people who voted for them.

Leaving is never an easy choice, after all most people have family and jobs they cannot leave and may have even real estate they cannot get rid off that easily, also you need money for that and not everyone can just move at the first sign of something wrong in the country, so for the most part people have to put with whatever the government is doing regardless of how bad it could be, however while a banning of cryptocurrencies could be inevitable in some countries there will always be countries where it is legal and you could open an account there and deposit your fiat in case you want to sell.

Times have changed now. Countries are moving towards a more restrictive immigration regimen, perhaps with the exception of a very few such as Canada. Nowadays only the super-rich are able to migrate to other countries and change their nationality. For the others, if they want to migrate to another nation then it takes long waits of 10 years or more and huge expenses irrespective of their skills. The days of open-border policies are over.

Things are probably going to get worse from now on, there was a time in which money was allowed to move more freely and obviously this allowed those with that money to move to a new country with relatively ease but since then many measures have been taken, but now that something like bitcoin exists immigration is going to be even more difficult as governments will see on every single person a potential threat as they do not know how much money that person can access, so most likely from now on a complete reveal of your finances will be necessary if you want to relocate to another country.

There are countries that would look for your finance capability if you are going to migrate but I do not think that you have to fully declare what you have.

Especially if you are going to downgrade from first country to a lower one.

But anyway, the discussion is just about Thailand's regulation towards illegal gambling.

They are not the only ones, gambling is addictive it's like smoking addiction where the withdrawal is the hardest to endure, these gamblers will always find a way to gamble even if there is a restriction and on a remote place, the promoters will try to find a place where gamblers will meet top gamble because there is profit to be made from these gamblers, so it's not only Thailand it's the problem of many countries and will continue to be a problem as long as there are restrictions.

Gambling is a game that is prohibited in many countries. The main reason why this country prohibit gambling is the negative impact of gambling which is difficult to control. Gambling addiction has caused the gambler more problems than he got it. Countries that legalize gambling can make a lot of profit through taxes, but if the government fails to prohibit gambler from using limited amount of money then compulsive gambling will continue to increase.

The taxes generated from gambling have helped cash flow into the state, but the government should also be held accountable for enacting regulation that allow gambler not to spend too much money in casino over a period of time. I like the idea, but until now my gambling activity still has to be done in secret in my country because it is prohibited.

Before granting citizenship, there is a thorough background check on the individual and he has to provide details about the last 5-10 years of earnings. I don't think that there should be any issue in case the individual mentions that he received most of his wealth from investment in cryptocurrency, because it is perfectly legal around the world. And in 2014, Roger Ver even paid for his St.Kitts citizenship in the form of Bitcoins (later he attained citizenship from Antigua and Barbuda as well).