Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking 'are casinos on the horizon here in Thailand?' We have discussed this a lot. This has been proposed a very great deal. I personally have been watching this with a lot of interest because I actually worked in the gaming industry at one point in my life and I find it kind of interesting to watch the ebbs and flows of the policy debate on this whole topic. I got to thinking of making this particular video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Mae Sot 'perfect' for Casino. Quoting directly: "Mae Sot District in talk is 'almost ready' to host an entertainment complex along the border with Myanmar, which will compete with a similar complex that opened in Myawaddy on Myanmar's side, according to a House Committee." As we noted before, that has kind of been a House Committee, like a blue ribbon committee that has been put together to discuss the notion of gaming in Thailand or a casino in Thailand. Quoting further: "Thepthai Senapong, a former Democrat MP for Nakhon Si Thammarat--in his capacity as a member of a Committee studying the feasibility of opening such a complex--said that the district is ready to open the complex, which is slated to include a Casino." So that is rather interesting. Now bear in mind that is Mae Sot, that is quite a ways from down here in Bangkok, quite a long little drive to get up there to Mae Sot, or a flight. It is not exactly a short trip to go up there.

It will be interesting to see if there is any further proposals to place casinos or even gaming in other places throughout the country. As I have said before, you have got to be careful with gambling. It can have a really detrimental impact on the underlying society in many different ways. There is another side of it that people don't often think of which is the difference between just having one big Megaplex Casino or allowing certain kind of low level gaming to occur throughout a given place. In my opinion, you don't necessarily want everybody to own a casino in a country but the notion that maybe some sort of licensing structure comes out out there where okay there is like one casino but then perhaps maybe a local restaurant owner or a bar owner can get a license for like a single card game for example. I remember when the poker craze was going around in the United States, these 'no limit games' pop up in bars and grills and restaurants where I am originally from back in Kansas and people would have these tournaments. Now they would win prizes, they didn't win money so they could get around the relevant laws on gambling but it drew in people to those given venues that probably would not otherwise go to those given venues because they enjoyed going and just playing some cards and I would say that might be something to think about here in Thailand on top of a casino sort of statutory structure is maybe have just this low level structure that says look, you can get not unlike an alcohol license or tobacco license or a music license you can get a gaming license to have like one card game. Then obviously there is going to be revenue associated with that so there is therefore going to be tax collection associated with that but maybe some folks don't think of it this way but I have noticed and I have worked in places that only have one Casino in a given place and it can have a detrimental impact on the economy because sort of all the money just kind of sucks into that 'black hole' whereas if it is kind of moving around a little bit there is an argument to be made that may be that is more beneficial to the overall economy as a whole.