Thailand, the most popular tourist destination and pleasure ground in Asia, is poised to legalise iGaming.
The move comes as central China authorities tighten financial gambling controls on their Special Administrative Region of Macau, the biggest gambling hub in the world, Indonesia launches a draconian crackdown on betting across its vast archipelago and The Philippines, hitherto associated with controversial and semi-clandestine off-shore POGO sites, seeks to transition to a regulated government-controlled gambling industry.
With most forms of betting already rife in Thailand, despite being prohibited under the 1935 Gambling Act and the more recent Playing Cards Act–only wagering on horse racing and a government-run national lottery are legal in the south-east Asian kingdom–, the development is a long-delayed regulatory response to de facto on-the-ground reality.
Asia’s Typhoon of Change
Now there is strong common support to legalise the full panoply of 360 gaming in the fast-developing nation of 78 million people.
Last year just over 36 million tourists visited Thailand, back near the pre-Covid 19 high mark of 40 million annual visitors, making it the seventh most popular holiday destination in the world.
Legal gambling is seen as a key strategy in boosting tourism — and generating billions of baht in tax income.
Thaksin Shinawatra–a former owner of Manchester City Football Club–tried to liberalise gambling during his tenure as Thai prime minister between 2001-2006.
But he encountered fierce opposition from the nation’s powerful and conservative Buddhist priesthood.
Plans to advance fully-regulated 360 gaming in Thailand have been propelled by a veritable typhoon of gambling change blowing across Asia.
Although the former Portuguese enclave of Macau remains the envy, and benchmark, of the traditional casino-resort world, outpacing even the locus of Las Vegas, China’s all-powerful leader Xi Jinping seems determined to crush the territory’s unique gambling industry. In recent months central China authorities have tightened gambling currency exchange controls in the territory and Xi has urged Macau to “diversify” its economy away from betting.
Safe Haven, Sure Bet
Meantime, Cambodia, Singapore, Myanmar and The Philippines all have legalised casinos and even Japan, with its own singular relationship to gambling, is now getting in on the mainstream mega casino-resort act.
This week Prasert Jantararuangtong, Thailand’s deputy prime minister and minister of digital economy and society, proposed plans to initiate full-access iGaming in his sports-mad country, where massive illicit bets are already placed on English Premier League matches and Thai boxing.
A first-phase white paper on the feasibility of legalising iGaming, with the powerful support of Thaksin Shinawatra, should be completed by this April, highly-placed Thai government sources told iGamingFuture this week.
And the move has been broadly welcomed by many casino heavy-hitters, who see Thailand as a safe haven if Macau–so close to Taiwan–becomes a busted flush.
