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This topic has been in the news a lot lately. For those who watch the channel with frequency over time, you will be aware that we have been talking about this one for a long time but it has been kind of one of those things that will periodically go on to the back burner and then it will come back up. So again, we are talking about gambling, legalization of gambling and casinos here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Casino proposal due for cabinet review 'in weeks'. Quoting directly: "The Cabinet will review a proposal to legalize casinos and allow them to be part of a new type of entertainment complex within 2 weeks, Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said on Tuesday. Quoting further: "The creation of a casino as part of a larger entertainment complex is expected to generate huge annual revenue for the Government." I am going to break this out here in a minute but let me keep going through the quote here. "According to Pichai Naripthaphan, Deputy Chairman of Phue Thai Party's Committee on Strategies and Politics." Quoting further: "Macau gains more than 400 billion Baht a year and Singapore 70 billion Baht a year in revenue from their casinos, he said, adding this Revenue tends to grow every year. Tens of thousands of high paying jobs will also be created." 

So a couple of things here. First off, as I have talked about in other videos, I am of kind of mixed mind regarding casinos and legalization of gambling because I have seen the ups and downsides of gambling over the years and I have actually been in that business. I used to be a dealer; I worked my way through law school being a dealer in the casinos; I worked poker primarily toward the end especially but I have worked in the pits. I know how to deal things like blackjack and crap and I have worked in that industry pretty extensively. Now I will admit I haven't been in sort of an executive capacity but I have seen the on the ground nuts and bolts of how gambling works. I've also seen how gambling works and it's interaction with local communities especially. And I am here to say it is worth serious consideration as to whether or not the costs outweigh the benefits or I should say the benefits outweigh the costs or if the cost do outweigh the benefits, whether or not this is a good idea. I'll get into some of the money analysis here in a minute but one of the big things I have been talking about for a long time has been the notion of at the very least a sort of different paradigm from this 'let's do it all as a big single complex' because I am not convinced that's the most optimal way to set up gambling in any jurisdiction. So for example Macau was mentioned. Well Macau is and I'll get into this when we talk Singapore in a minute, but Macau is a small jurisdiction but it has multiple gaming outlets, it doesn't just have one complex. Now you could look at Macau through the prism of greater China and say well but it is one small area compared to that whole jurisdiction. Okay, fair enough on that but still there are multiple different venues which creates a set of competition in the market which has concomitant economic benefits for the overall market just due to the fact that there is a market. When you just create a monopoly and say 'okay this one place can engage in this activity' yes it may result in tax revenue, I don't think there's any doubt that there would be tax revenue garnered off of any proposal to legalize gambling here in Thailand or casino gambling I should say. And for the record, we have discussed this in other videos, currently racing is still legal, it is still possible to wager on racing; certain aspects of certain types of Muay Thai boxing may have a wagering component to it that is legal and then there is the lottery here in Thailand which is also legal. But that said, to the issue of casinos, I have been talking for a long time about the notion of so-called card rooms or the allowance of licenses for smaller venues to have certain types of wagering activities. And to really put a fine point on it I would argue that the differentiation here should be between skill gaming as opposed to gambling. What do I mean? Well poker is an example of 'skill gaming' where wagers are part of it but there is a skill set involved in playing poker. It's not a coincidence that 60% of the final table in the World Series of Poker every year are the same group of people oftentimes and oftentimes it's more. Oftentimes sometimes from one year to the next in the World series of Poker you'll see basically the same people on the final tables of things like a Hold ‘em table, Texas Hold 'em table, etc. The point I am trying to make with that is that is evidence, prima facie evidence in my opinion of the fact that poker is a skill game. Yes it involves wagering, I totally understand that but it's not gambling in the sense of like playing roulette or craps or even Blackjack to some extent, although there is a skill element to Blackjack so I think reasonable people can make arguments either way on that one, but again it's a different thing from just gambling; just throwing caution to the wind and just gambling. Skill gaming is something different. I would make a strong argument, I believe in one of the prior proposals when they were talking about this because we made the videos on it at the time, there was discussion that the Excise Tax Department would have a function to play in some kind of secondary licensing scheme associated with smaller vendors and venues. Again another aspect of this that I don't think people are really thinking about in terms of skill gaming is like billiards. Billiards is a skill, you can wager on that if you so desire. It may be illegal right now here in Thailand but it is possible to take wagers on things like billiard games etc., I would make a strong argument again that there would be economic benefits to be gained albeit in a broader context, where we would be talking about not just one casino complex gaining some economic benefit off of changes to Thai gambling laws or specifically I should say Thai laws regarding gaming, be it skilled wagering or unskilled wagering, but that being said I think it is worth legislators who are thinking over this issue to maybe think about bifurcating a licensing scheme and say okay for unskilled gaming, for gambling true gambling, we are only going to allow it in limited venues but for skill gaming, again card rooms, card room specifically pertaining to things like poker, I think there is a strong argument to be made that hey let's have broader licensing for that; let's let people a little further down the economic strata, benefit from that kind of licensing regime here in Thailand. Again I think you can maybe even throw a billiards into that, maybe create a license where billiard halls could have some sort of wagering apparatus allowed on their premises. 

Again I am just kind of floating these ideas because I am hoping that during the process of Parliament talking about this, bringing it before the Cabinet for further discussion, we actually have the discussion about possible different scenarios rather than just one given place where exclusively gambling or gaming can occur, whereas I think if it was broadened out a little bit it would provide more benefit, more broadly to Thai society while at the same time again not necessarily broadly spreading gambling but more broadly spreading what I call skill gaming which there is a big difference here. Poker is a totally different animal from what we used to call 'pit gambling' in what we call the 'pit' which was the area where table games things like again blackjack, roulette, craps, various carnival games is what we called them. Things like three card poker and things of this nature were held. That is gambling, you are playing against the house. With Poker, it's people playing against each other. Now the House may provide a dealer and a rake to be compensated for putting out the game but you are not playing against the house; a big difference there. Again I could see a scenario where billiards could be brought into a similar licensing scheme to something like poker. That would be the first thing I would say about this is don't just view this as an ‘either/or’. We either don't have gambling or we have just one complex where that is the only place it can occur. Again and I say this knowing full well of the possible negative ramifications of legalization of gambling in Thailand, again I don't think skilled gaming has nearly the negative implications on society as a whole as does what one would traditionally consider ‘gambling’. As a result, I think it's worth looking into to allow again secondary venues. For example if bars, even just some kind of non, what would you call it, sort of non-profitable gaming activities for example like allowing 'not for money poker tournaments' in bars here in Thailand. I think there would be a great deal of benefit to allowing that. I remember when that came about, the poker craze hit the United States, and various venues, bar and grills and things where I am from, would have poker tournaments. Now there wasn't any money involved; it was just kind of a pride thing. There may be a prize at the end of it but it did create a great deal of demand for people to go to those venues and again I think that there is something to be said for looking at this as gambling versus skill gaming and then looking at licensing for gambling as opposed to licensing for skill gaming. 

So setting that issue aside, then we get over to the whole issue related to the money. "Macau gains more than 400 billion Baht a year and Singapore 70 billion Baht a year." A couple of things here. Let's look at that. These are two wildly different jurisdictions compared to Thailand. Basically both of these places are effectively city-states. Now I know Macau is now part of broader China; Singapore is an independent nation but that said, these are small places that can focus primarily on that sector. The point I am trying to make is, I don't think it behooves Thailand necessarily to compare herself when looking at that issue, very directly to either of those other venues. How gambling will work in Thailand I expect will be fundamentally different to how it would operate in either of those jurisdictions because again they are just fundamentally different. Thailand is a big country. How this will impact a country that looks like Thailand could be wildly different to how it would impact a place like Macau or Singapore and then finally "high paying jobs". Yes fair enough. That's the big benefit that I do see coming to Thai society from the legalization of for example casinos it would be the creation of jobs, a job creation machine. Again that said, I think it's worth looking at a "dual licensing" scheme for gambling as opposed to skilled gaming because again I could see a situation evolve where there is a lot of benefit to the Thai middle classes here in Thailand who could benefit from maintaining their own little for example card room or billiard room where you are not necessarily creating a wage earner at that point, you are creating a business owner; you're creating a new member of the middle class who is now a taxpayer and has certain interests in their own right that can benefit society as well. So again, while jobs should be part of the analysis, let's look at what kind of jobs could be created as a result of the legalization of gambling here in the Kingdom of Thailand.