Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing legalization of gambling in Thailand, well we are discussing the prospect of it, let me be clear. Gambling is highly regulated in Thailand with very few exceptions; the lottery and certain horse racing events, those are basically the exceptions under the current law. The reason for the video, the reason I got to thinking about this, I’ll get into the analysis in a moment, I was reading in the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, in an article titled: There's a lot riding on Pattaya's prospects for a casino. To quote directly: "In reality, the concept of a legal casino has changed a lot in recent times. Take Singapore as an example. Its two integrated resorts, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa are world-class theme parks offering a range of leisure activities, five-star restaurants, and top notch hotels. The Las Vegas Sands Group which owns more US casinos than anyone else, last year endorsed the idea that Thai Casino complexes might best be built from scratch. A Casino hub for Pattaya would best be situated on the outskirts because of the regular traffic snarl ups downtown." 

When I get into this analysis first of all, so there is sort of the distant past of gambling in Asia where you get back to looking at things like Macau, especially Portuguese Macau, where Casinos were almost run like in houses in certain circumstances. You can see footage of these very rather, I mean for lack of a better term, they are kind of small compared to like what we think of when we think of Las Vegas. So there has definitely been a paradigm shift in thoughts on gaming especially as it pertains to tourism in general because you can build these huge complexes; have malls, you have amusement parks. It draws in a real crowd and Vegas was kind of the first to get into that. I mean full this closure, I worked in the Casino Industry, I went through Law School working in the casino industry. I have dealt games on a Casino floor in a number of different venues and the number of different games so I have kind of been around it, in a sense I kind of grew up in it, I was already technically legally an adult when I was in there but I was pretty darn young and I kind of came up in that. If I had stayed in the US I think I probably would have ended up in that industry sort of as my vocation but it is different here in Asia and people need to recognize that. 

The reason for the video what I was thinking of, or one of the reasons for the video is there is the kind of theme park paradigm with respect to Casinos and I totally get that but because this is still being discussed, I think it might not be a terrible idea to possibly look at not alternatives but maybe to have a regulatory structure here in Thailand which allowed for a little bit broader for lack of a better term, enjoyment of the business potential, the business upsides of gaming here in Thailand, a little bit broader like benefit to more the economy, is what I am trying to say. To quote that same article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, another excerpt: “Legalized gambling in Pattaya is coming soon with the vote likely taken after the next general election when the pro-military parties are expected to fare poorly. Meanwhile the many arguments against casinos, fundamentalist religious beliefs and fear of corruption to name but two are being heard less and less. You can bet your shirt on it." Well, I don't know if I necessarily agree with the conclusions in all of that but I know that there is as they say “fundamentalist religious beliefs” associated with Casinos. One of the big ones, and one of the big in my opinion concerns of any jurisdiction looking to legalize gambling is the negative impact on the society around it. I have been in venues for example like Vegas where gambling is pervasive, it is basically the economy. The economy of Las Vegas was built on legalized gambling. In that place, in a very real sense gaming had a huge positive impact on that economy. When you get a situation, unfortunately there was a difference between so-called excursion gaming, like vacation gaming, and convenience gaming. So for example this especially became prevalent on the Native American reservations which began having casinos roughly 30 years ago in the United States. You would see these places pop up very near places that had never had legal gambling in that location and which there was really no competition. There was just one place where everyone would go and in a very real sense, and I watched this happen these venues can become sort of a "black hole" of money being sucked in from the surrounding economy because people just get, unfortunately they kind of get overwrought about gambling. They just get really into it and start maybe throwing away money they don't necessarily have.

Now Thailand is a different venue, I do understand. I think, I do believe, my personal opinion Pattaya would be a good place to see a Casino open but you have got to understand when you just have one, it can kind of act as a magnet for capital from the surrounding economy which is why to sort of some this up, one thing to think about in that context in my opinion, is the fact that it may not be a terrible idea to have sort of a two-tiered licensing structure where it is like okay we have the huge Casino complex, that is going to operate under one concession, that's how that is going to be. But something to maybe think about, just to think about. I am just throwing this out there. People have asked me over the years: "who listens to this stuff?" I don't know quite frankly but I am just going to throw it out there so I can say 10 years from now when things are what they are, “well I said that in 2022”, for better or for worse that was my thought. Something in my opinion to think about is like a different licensing structure so there's like the big licensed venue and then like a one-off license for bars, restaurants, smaller entertainment venues where they get a license to have one table for example. So for example I mean in the poker craze of the mid-aughts, it was around 2005, 6, 7, 8, 9 going up to 2010, Poker became a huge thing that in many ways revitalized and revolutionize the bar industry in the United States. I saw this first hand where people would have these little poker games. Now they couldn't play for money where I was at most of the time but they could play for prizes and things but people just enjoyed playing poker for example and to allow for example again Pattaya or here in Bangkok, to allow small venues that cater to F&B and entertainment, bars, restaurants, clubs, I am just saying it might be worth looking at to allow just a sort of a single license that allows one game in a given venue that that venue can enjoy a little bit of revenue coming off of that. Now there is going to be a tax probably associated with that. That is going to mean you are going to have tax revenue that comes off of that in a more broad sense. The other thing is and I have found this to be the case, psychologically people when they only have one gambling venue they can get kind of pent up or they just get kind of overwrought and they just want to go to that one venue and then they end up spending way more money than they may be otherwise should. If it's not, especially at the local level, if it is not viewed as this really novel thing that can only happen at this one particular place, it has been my experience it has sort of a psychologically deflationary effect on folks that may otherwise have a problem with gambling because it is not this big event that they kind of build up into. It is more just something that is there that they can enjoy when they want to enjoy it. It has been my experience, I have just seen this, I am not saying I have any other evidence other than anecdotal evidence to back this up, but it has been my experience that folks that get into a mindset where it is like "oh there is only this one place we can play and so I am going to go there and spend as much as I can because I want to get it out of my system" or something, that can have a detrimental impact on those folks. They can end up spending money that maybe they don't even really have. Whereas if it is a little more laid-back and they can kind of enjoy that in a more sort of laid-back context and it is not this big event, that might not be a terrible thing. Yet again if you have still got the casino complex you can still use that to draw in the tourists and to draw in folks who might come into Thailand just to go to that particular Casino.

What I am saying is I can see a regulatory structure devised wherein you can get the most out of the tourists in the sense that you bring in tourists and they just go to this complex and it just rakes in the money, while at the same time it does not have this magnetic "black hole" effect on the local economy if you sort of allow folks to kind of have just small, maybe little games and it kind of spreads that money a little bit further around in the community. Meanwhile you are creating a tax base and quite honestly you probably are going to create a number of jobs especially within the Government because you are going to have to have somebody go around and collect those taxes and make sure everybody is operating within the regulatory confines, they are operating in compliance with whatever regulatory scheme is out there. One's man opinion at the end of the day, but I have been in that industry; I have kind of seen the pros and the cons and I am hoping that in the end Thailand adopts an approach, if they even decide to do Casinos in Thailand or gaming in Thailand, Thailand adopts an approach that is beneficial for everyone in Thailand.