Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Reuters here in Thailand. And I want to be clear, I'm quite a fan of Reuters; I actually like their news service, I have for years, but recently, especially in this narrative push regarding Casino Gambling in Thailand, I was really angry at both Reuters, the Bangkok Post and whoever that person was that was talking all kinds of nonsense about how Thailand needs to sort of get their act together or something with regard to how gambling will work here. Thailand is going to deal with gambling how Thailand wants to deal with gambling. It's not going to be dictated to by foreigners, okay? That's just a fact. 

That said, I thought of that in sort of the aftermath of making that video and then I was reading this, and this is actually from Reuters itself, reuters.com, US Defense Department contract 'inaccurately represented' on social media, says Thompson Reuters. Quoting directly: "Thompson Reuters said on Thursday, its business with the US Department of Defense was "inaccurately represented," in response to accusations on social media by Elon Musk and President Donald Trump that the company had played a role in "large scale social deception" for the Government. Let me read that again for you - "large scale social deception". Wow! We wouldn't know what that would be like here in Thailand at all after we've seen Reuters try to come in here and push this narrative that Thailand somehow needs the Westerners as if we don't know what we are doing when it comes to the issue of gaming over here. No, we wouldn't know anything about "large scale social deception"!

Quoting further: "The contract in question was a four-year, $9 million award beginning in 2018 during Trump's first term and ending in 2022, between the US Department of Defense and a division of the Toronto-based content and technology company called Thompson Reuters Special Services (TRSS). Looks a lot like TASS! Quoting further: "The contract was intended to protect the US Government from social engineering, which is a form of cyber threat in which people are tricked into divulging sensitive information." Okay. Quoting further: "Trump demanded that Reuters repay the US Government in a Truth Social post on Thursday morning. “DOGE: Looks like Radical Left Reuters was paid $9,000,000 dollars by the Department of Defense to study 'large-scale social deception.' GIVE BACK THE MONEY NOW."

Well, I have to ask the question, are they over here in Thailand engaging in large scale social deception, because I find it really galling that they're over here trying to tell the Thais how to be doing things with regard to whether or not they even legalized gambling here. Let me be very clear, I'm not necessarily a huge fan of the notion of Thailand legalizing gambling. I'm not saying it's a foregone conclusion it should happen, and I can see the strong arguments against it. I do believe if we bring it in it could help Thailand if it's brought in correctly and if it's implemented right, so it doesn't negatively impact the country and we only see the benefits of foreign money especially, coming from it. But that said, it is not a net good across the board and it is really wrong for foreigners to be coming in here trying to tell Thailand how to be doing things with regard to this as the Thais can handle such matters on their own.