Thailand to Legalize Gambling To combat Illegal gambling or....

[serjent05]

I read an article about Thailand's Prime Minister planning to legalize gambling in order to combat illegal gambling.  He also stated that the illegal gambling operation are earning trillions of baht but are not contributing to the nation.  Read more about the news here:
    Thai PM: Legalise gambling to tackle existing illegal gambling



I believe the Thai PM realized that they are losing for not making gambling legal in their country.  I believe it is not to combat the illegal gambling but rather to take advantage of the gambling activities to get more taxes to fund the country's treasury.  It was said that if gambling is legalized the country might bring an amount ranging from TBH30B to TBH50B (US$0.8bn to US$1.3bn) in investments to the country aside from the annual taxes that can be earned from gambling industries.

I also think that it is a wise decision on the PM side since it is impossible to stop gambling, so why not take advantage of it for the country's development?  Your thought?

[Oshosondy]

I also think that it is a wise decision on the PM side since it is impossible to stop gambling, so why not take advantage of it for the country's development?  Your thought?

If you do not let your citizens to gamble, you are only deceiving yourself because gambling is in the nature of humans. That is why you will see the citizens of the countries where gambling is not legal going to foreign gambling sites to gamble. It is good that Thailand government see this now and know that they should legalize gambling and generate tax from it. Buddhism religion do not totally forbids gambling while they do not also totally support it.

[acroman08]

I don't see anything wrong with what they are about to do and yeah I think it is not a bad idea, I mean, gambling brings a lot of revenue and their country could really benefit from it(the Philippines did especially during the height of COVID). That being said, if they are going to legalize gambling in their country they should also invest in gambling awareness programs that would help people(especially the youth) tackle gambling in a healthy way.

[royalfestus]

I believe that the legalization of gambling is more about regulating it. While I am not sure how severely gambling impacts national security, I think there are far worse issues to worry about. The government could generate significant revenue from gambling, as seen in other leading countries. They should also allow gambling advertisements across all possible channels.

[cabron]

Making the gambling legal in the country will make the casinos operating illegally apply for license and abide the law. Gambling legalization will then allow the government to collect tax from the casinos.  Its a wonder why they were not doing this earlier the country is known for tourist from the West. Cambodia I think is already legalizing gambling for a long time.

They just have to really make the regulations clear like the age limits otherwise this is increasing the risk of generations of gamblers in the country.

[jossiel]

There's a faucet of money that's going away to the government if they're going to combat illegal gambling.

Instead of shooing them away, they have to embrace it and make them legal so that it won't be taken advantage by the mafias or any other organizations that are making money from them.

While these organizations can still earn money, these illegal gambling operations that will soon to be legal will be obliged to pay taxes to the government.

[Sandra_hakeem]

I believe the Thai PM realized that they are losing for not making gambling legal in their country.  I believe it is not to combat the illegal gambling but rather to take advantage of the gambling activities to get more taxes to fund the country's treasury.  It was said that if gambling is legalized the country might bring an amount ranging from TBH30B to TBH50B (US$0.8bn to US$1.3bn) in investments to the country aside from the annual taxes that can be earned from gambling industries.

it's hard to believe that you know too well the reason for extending the taxation policies to them and you still support the government. It'll only take a degenerate gambler - that's not willing to retreat no matter the sort of taxation that's placed on the industry to understand how he's going to lose in paying taxes alone.
Again, since the country's aim isn't to favour them in any case, they'd be left with an option to either quit, or pay a huge tax. I believe that's going to curb the situation of illegal gambling in their country as well.

I also think that it is a wise decision on the PM side since it is impossible to stop gambling, so why not take advantage of it for the country's development?  Your thought?

pretty much unfair but important one... This may also have a negative effect; like luring underage into gambling since there are no restrictions at all.

[Nwada001]

I also think that it is a wise decision on the PM side since it is impossible to stop gambling, so why not take advantage of it for the country's development?  Your thought?

Won't it also be a little bit too late for them to combat this? Adding to the fact that the citizens have already found their way around to gamble even with the restriction, what will the country do to attract their attention back to any of the legalised casinos that will be licensed to be operational in the country, especially if their gambling in a foreign base casino will help them invade tax?
 
Making gambling legal might make it easier for them to sanction the casinos providing gambling activities to their citizens without permission and also generate tax from those legally licensed ones. It will be a win for them, but not all citizens will want to come back and gamble in the open in that country, from my own point of view.

[Spaceman1000$]

I read an article about Thailand's Prime Minister planning to legalize gambling in order to combat illegal gambling.  He also stated that the illegal gambling operation are earning trillions of baht but are not contributing to the nation.  Read more about the news here:
    Thai PM: Legalise gambling to tackle existing illegal gambling



I believe the Thai PM realized that they are losing for not making gambling legal in their country.  I believe it is not to combat the illegal gambling but rather to take advantage of the gambling activities to get more taxes to fund the country's treasury.  It was said that if gambling is legalized the country might bring an amount ranging from TBH30B to TBH50B (US$0.8bn to US$1.3bn) in investments to the country aside from the annual taxes that can be earned from gambling industries.

I also think that it is a wise decision on the PM side since it is impossible to stop gambling, so why not take advantage of it for the country's development?  Your thought?

If the prime minister have realized that they've been doing themselves a big disservice by criminalizing gambling and have now realize their mistake, then it's a welcome development, at least as a government they now realize that they can make revenue from the activities of gambling in their country once is made legal. At this point now, you will see an in flocks of casinos and bet companies coming to invest in the country, because that's like a new market that will be opening for them, on the other hand, a lot of persons are keenly waiting for this kind of opportunity for them to explore their gambling ability and make money for themselves, so it's a win win situation for both the government and the citizens.

[alani123]

In a country where opposition politicians are forbidden from talking against the military junta that still rules the country, I wouldn't have very high hopes. "Legalization" of gambling is just gonna let a few cronies and friends of the regime become rich with gambling they can advertise everywhere legally, while other operations are faced with very strict enforcement and regulatory action.

I doubt the Thai government would care about customer protection or addiction prevention. As an authoritarian regime they just want reliable sources of income to stay in power and if they can direct funds from gambling to their pockets I'm sure they'd be very glad to do it.

[Wexnident]

~

True true, I've always agreed with the thought that if you want something regulated, you don't stop it but instead control it. Put it under your hands in other words. Banning it just makes illegal venues for it to spread and form, of which majority of the time you wouldn't even be able to touch since they can just scatter when noticed.

Plus as OP pointed out, controlling it basically means profit for them after all. I don't think there's any reason to avoid that. Naturally there's going to be more workforce to manage and maintain it but hey, that's every money making business anyway.

[Upgrade00]

The legalities of gambling in Thailand has been complicated, I understood that online gambling is not exactly prohibited but was viewed to be illegal by the authorities.

If the government does legalize gambling it will help the gambling community there and stop illegal operations which puts the players at risk, however the taxes imposed should not be be excessive. If the aim is to boost the economy it should not be done in a way that will stifle the growth of casinos and also allow players get enough profits from their winnings.

[Rruchi man]

I also think that it is a wise decision on the PM side since it is impossible to stop gambling, so why not take advantage of it for the country's development?  Your thought?

My thoughts are that gamblers will no longer be committing a crime when they gamble because they are no longer doing something illegal.

The gambling sector is a multimillion sector,so why not take advantage of it?

Legalization of gambling will also make gambling safer, asides the online environment, other gamblers who go to secret gambling locations to gamble will no longer need to take that sort of risk.

[Jating]

"If you can't beat them, join them", attitude by the Thai government. I think it's good approach as compare to really trying to crack it down and then your efforts like money, manpower are futile because they are going to sprout like mushrooms. And if you capture one, for sure 10 more illegal dens are going to be established by this criminals. And then maybe some of them are really working together with some government officials and police for protection.

So maybe this way they can eliminate those things and let them pay tax, at least it's a win win situation. Let's see how they are going to cope though with the gambling addiction, it will obviously rise in numbers and the government should also established infrastructure for rehab facilities.

[Wiwo]

I also think that it is a wise decision on the PM side since it is impossible to stop gambling, so why not take advantage of it for the country's development?  Your thought?

If you do not let your citizens to gamble, you are only deceiving yourself because gambling is in the nature of humans. That is why you will see the citizens of the countries where gambling is not legal going to foreign gambling sites to gamble. It is good that Thailand government see this now and know that they should legalize gambling and generate tax from it. Buddhism religion do not totally forbids gambling while they do not also totally support it.

This approach is financially beneficial to the Thailand government since legalising gambling will boost their revenue generation from that industry and since humans look for fun more than anything else, they will always be high traffic in gambling.

So regardless wether the government approved gambling or not the citizens will fine a way to always gamble,  so by making gambling legal, it will encourage public acceptance of gambling which means more revenue in tax for the government.

[AliMan]

This is one reason to let the tax of a nation run through transparency, because government couldn't get enough or adequate tax from illegal gambling. Same with drugs that circulated around the country which is illegal they couldn't get an income for the country for that that's why everything in a specific country should be legalized.
Though we can't stop illegal to exist, at least there's a force law implementated to focus on those regulations in order to suppress or minimize illegal operations because that's really intoxicated a lot of small gamblers who has no food for the table and gamble just to expect profit from it.

[klidex]

It is difficult to eradicate gambling because currently there are many gambling sites created by foreigners and people in the country always have a way to continue gambling even though the government prohibits gambling because now gambling has become a game that is easy to access, because there is online gambling and it can be done secretly so that the government doesn't know about the activities of people who gamble because there are so many people who participate in gambling, automatically people who gamble in the country spend their money on foreign sites, they experience a lot of losses, their money goes to countries where it's legal gambling and the domestic government suffered losses.

That is a pretty good idea if the country wants to make a profit from people who gamble within the country. With this, foreign sites can pay taxes to countries that legalize gambling so that their users can play safely.

However, this can also have a bad impact thing is that more and more people will gamble if a country legalizes gambling and it is feared that many teenagers will participate in gambling with adults.

[Dave1]

It's two fold but I think the government of Thailand wanted to attract high rollers in their country to play and so they will benefit not just from tourist but from this high rollers as well. And with that it could mean more jobs as well to the local people. Second is the tax that it will generate for them, almost half a billion dollar according to them.

So it makes sense that they government are shifting and Thailand in recent years or at least the sitting government is very liberal about it. Even form of cannabis is somewhat regulated too in this Southeast Asian country.

[Davidvictorson]

I also think that it is a wise decision on the PM side since it is impossible to stop gambling, so why not take advantage of it for the country's development?  Your thought?

This is a wise decision, well informed and well thought-out. Pretty sure it is based on evidence. And oh yes, it will be difficult to stop gambling anywhere in the world. It is an activity that is almost as old as human existence. Even thought illegal gambling will not just disappear overnight, yet we know that it is going to make it less attractive. The taxes from gambling can be used to do a lot of public good. If it is put into the economy, it can be used for social welfare. In addition to this legalizing gambling will help to create jobs and by extension help to boost the local economy where casinos would be located in.

[Apocollapse]

It just a perspective matter.

If you're a government, the difference between legal gambling and illegal gambling is the regulation. Before regulation, they're in grey area, if the casino didn't follow the regulations, then it's illegal.

If you're a gambler, you will have such thought, the government want to advantage over both casino and gamblers' profit.

So, I'd say both perspectives are correct.