The Justice Ministry of Thailand has indicated that it will draft legislation to legalize all types of gambling, including casinos, in the Thai Kingdom so that the government can use the proceeds of those legalized gambling systems to benefit social development in Thailand.
Khun Pongpat Riangkrua, the director of Thailand's ministry's legal office and chairman of the committee charged with revamping the anti-corruption law, said Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana would invite concerned parties to help draft a bill for new gambling laws during a brainstorming session in December 2003.
Director Pongpat Riangkrua further added that legalizing gambling in Thailand would put an end to the underground Thai gambling mafia and the huge corruption surrounding the Thai world of illegal gambling. He said the Thai government should accept the fact that illegal gambling exists in Thailand and is practiced by nearly half of the Thai population.
Thailand has been turning a blind eye to illegal gambling dens and the huge prostitution problems. We just kept sweeping the dirt under the carpet and were too naive to accept the hard facts of reality, he said.
The present gambling law makes it tough for gambling operators, he said. They have to deal with many different agencies and pay huge sums of money under the table. But it's cheaper for them to pay the bribes than seek licenses legitimately. The law should be amended to make licensing easier, he said, so that the government can establish controls and tax the operators.
The Anti-Money Laundering Law should also be amended to include gambling-related offences and the Thai government should legalize casinos by granting them concessions, he said.
Meanwhile, the Thai Research Fund organized a seminar that discussed possible abuses of funds raised through legalized gambling. Participants suggested the government issue laws to ensure transparency in the management of gambling systems in Thailand.
Professor Pasuk Pongpaijit, from the Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Economics in Bangkok, said gambling legislation should be drafted to manage all gambling revenue, and the Office of the Auditor-General in Thailand should be employed to ensure there is transparency in the bookkeeping of casinos and gambling businesses.
Thailand's Government Lottery Office is generating huge revenue from the new two and three digit lottery game, but there is no mechanism to monitor the funds. Thai Politicians could easily pocket huge sums of this money, she also said.
Gambling in Thailand should be recognized and legalized, because gambling has become, since many years, a Thai way of life as our lives are more and more dominated by capitalism and speculation, she said.
Thai people nowadays want to get rich quick and try their luck without working. It would be an up-hill task to try to stop gambling in Thailand. It's better to bring the problem out in the open and have the Thai government control it properly, than denying that the problem exists, she further added.
Extensive research should be carried out before the implementation of a new gambling law in Thailand, Khun Pasuk said, to find out what kind of people gamble, why they gamble, where they get their income from and if they have family problems. Furthermore, Thai gambling laws should be strong enough to prevent money laundering from gambling systems, she said.
According to statistics compiled by researcher Dr Sangsit Piriyarangsan, 1.8 trillion Thai Baht was circulating in illegal gambling in Thailand, last year alone, which represent 8% of the gross domestic product of Thailand. Thai gamblers lose 353 to 415 billion Thai Baht a year with gambling with more than 21 million people buying underground lottery tickets, she added.
