Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat announced that Thailand is on the brink of legalizing large-scale entertainment complexes with casinos.
The final draft of this ambitious bill is set to be ready for cabinet deliberations within the next three to four weeks.
I think this is bad news for Thailand.
Although the economy is struggling, casinos are not the answer.
With casinos comes organized crime, racketeering, loan sharking and gambling addictions.
Thailand is not prepared to handle these social issues.
One has to wonder who will benefit the most from casinos as it will not be the Thai people?
Will casinos in Thailand drive large scale tourism or will it attract the kind of tourists we don’t need or want?
Phuket is experiencing a rash of crime from people from Russia.
With every decision, someone will profit and you can rest assured it will not be the people of Thailand.
I think this is a very bad idea.