Transcript of the above video: 

The question posed by this video is, is Casino gaming or gambling the right move for Thailand? Is this a good thing for Thailand? Now I have discussed this at length in prior videos where quite frankly I rather angrily, passionately angrily got rather upset one, at a leak by I don't know who in Parliament of a draft piece of legislation regarding Casino gambling that was leaked to Reuters, but apparently not to the public. So why some foreign news organization that used to be the intelligence service for a major banking syndicate, gets to see this information before and apparently to the exclusion up to this point - I'm not aware that anyone else has seen this so-called draft legislation - so I have real concerns about that, that these foreign interlopers are coming in and injecting themselves into our legislative process here in Thailand. What is going on there? That's my first question. 

Then secondly, in the same article I discussed, there are all these foreigners telling us here in Thailand how we need to be open to true competition and we can't involve homegrown billionaires and all of this nonsense. One, hey I want to create some homegrown billionaires here in Thailand. I like to think one of the reasons Thailand exists is to let her citizenry become homegrown billionaires and do you know what, I am really not interested in a bunch of foreigners coming in and telling us all how the cow ate the cabbage. Quite frankly, you gaming operations ought to know better especially if you have ever interacted with any of the sovereign tribes of the United States, in the United States I should say, because at the end of the day, you know how you know how this works. Sovereign entities get to make their own decisions regarding how they will either allow or not allow at all gambling in their jurisdiction, and how the regulation thereof will be dealt with. They also get to deal with who can gain licensure. That is a prerogative of sovereign nations. I don't know why that one is hard to understand, but coming in here and telling us all how the cow ate the cabbage is not the way to get it done. 

Now meanwhile, the point and the thrust of this video is the question, 'is any of this really all that good for Thailand?' and I have got to tell you I'm right on the bubble, like I'm very on the fence of gambling in Thailand, and I come from the industry. I have got to be honest with you, one of the main reasons I decided to live here was I figured, well it might legalize one day, there may be benefits for me, but as 17 years has gone by, it hasn't happened in any meaningful way, yeah there have been a few reforms and things, minor, things pertaining to things like a lottery or something of that nature, but again no major changes with respect to things like Casino gambling. Again, I can see the benefits of it; I can also see the fact that it's a very disruptive issue here in Thailand. It can have tremendous ramifications on the polity of Thailand as well as just the way the economy works, as well as on the people of Thailand, all the way to the top all the way down to the bottom - all levels, all strata of the economy. Look gambling as a vice, especially as an addiction, can hit anyone. It doesn't matter what race, what age, what socioeconomic strata you find yourself in. It is pernicious, it can have really substantially negative impacts. The point I'm trying to make is that is something we need to keep in mind, and we should not be railroaded by foreigners into a casino scheme that is not beneficial to Thailand and is only beneficial to foreign interests. That is not going to be something that is going to be good for anybody and it could end up putting Thailand in a very detrimental position relative to where we are now. 

So that being said, as the thumbnail suggests - and I'll put a link in the description below to where I got that photo from - but that is by the great Chairman of the Board, Francis Albert Sinatra, that's one of his great songs, "Nice and Easy". My thinking on this is we need to take this nice and easy. There is no reason to get railroaded into this; there's no reason to believe we have to pass a Bill in this Parliament. We can sit around and debate it for a good long time because we need to get this right. At the end of the day, there's a very delicate balancing act that goes into legalization of gaming. For example, as I've discussed at length, bet limits for local nationals, for Thais. Anybody can come into the Casino but when you present your ID and things, and get your player card, Thais can only bet to a certain limit on a given time frame, whereas foreigners can come in and bet whatever they want. That's just one example of methods that can be used to try and mitigate the damages to the local society, while also getting the benefits especially from the foreign capital that can be accrued inbound to Thailand. 

Now that being said, again I want to reiterate this, all of this should be happening in a very duress free manner. Basically, Parliament should be deliberating these things without any undue influence, without any outside influence. Parliament needs to come up with what is best for Thailand, not what is best for the foreign interests outside of this nation.