{"id":777021785,"date":"2025-01-07T09:54:41","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T12:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777021785"},"modified":"2026-04-22T02:59:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:59:25","slug":"thailand-government-reportedly-plans-to-legalise-online-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/thailand-government-reportedly-plans-to-legalise-online-gambling","title":{"rendered":"Thailand government reportedly plans to legalise online gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Deputy PM Prasert Jantararuangtong cited potential economic benefits as the main reason for legalising online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Thailand.- The government of Thailand is reportedly planning to start discussions about legalising online gambling<\/strong>. According to the Bangkok Post, Deputy Prime Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong<\/strong> urged officials from all relevant ministries to begin coordinating their efforts and said an official study on this plan should be finished in the next few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prasert, who is also Thailand\u2019s digital economy and society minister, said that many legal changes are needed for online gambling to be legal but added that online gambling platforms handle a lot of money daily, and if properly taxed, it could benefit the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As regards the age limit on access to online gambling sites, Prasert indicated that the issue has not yet been discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had already suggested that regulating online gambling could benefit both the economy and society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill to legalise casinos in Thailand could be passed this year<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The government hopes the legislation to allow casino resorts will be passed by the two chambers of the country\u2019s parliament this year. Last November, Prommin Lertsuridej<\/strong>, Secretary-General to the country\u2019s Prime Minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra told Bloomberg, that \u201cthe law should be passed in six months<\/strong> from now at the earliest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts at Citigroup have forecast that casinos in\u00a0Thailand could generate US$1.91bn annually in gross gaming revenue (GGR)<\/a>. That would surpass the GGR of Singapore\u2019s two casinos and place Thailand \u201conly behind Macau and Las Vegas”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts\u00a0George Choi, Preenapa Detchsri and Timothy Chau<\/strong>\u00a0based their analysis on the assumption of two licences in Bangkok and one each in Pattaya, Phuket and Chiang Mai, all popular destinations for international tourists. They estimated that any international casino operator granted an entertainment complex licence in Bangkok could expect at least a 15 per cent increase in EBITDA while some operators could see annual EBITDA nearly double assuming a 50:50 joint venture with local partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn light of the lower gaming tax rate at 17 per cent and the lower operating expenses \u2013 mostly wages and utilities \u2013 versus Singapore, we believe EBITDA margin could reach 40 per cent to 50 per cent, which implies Thailand could see industry EBITDA of approximately US$4.1bn annually,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft bill proposes 30-year casino licences with the option for a 10-year renewal. Complexes would be located in designated areas and operated by companies registered in Thailand with a minimum paid-up capital of THB10bn (US$283m). A policy panel led by the prime minister and a regulatory agency would oversee the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a study by the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO)<\/a>, the establishment of IRs could increase visits to Thailand by 5 to 20 per cent and increase spending per visitor from THB40,000 (US$1,184) to THB60,000 (US$1,776).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deputy PM Prasert Jantararuangtong cited potential economic benefits as the main reason for legalising online gambling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777022006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Thailand is actively pursuing the legalization of online gambling, driven by Deputy PM Prasert Jantararuangtong's focus on economic benefits through taxation. Concurrently, legislation for integrated casino resorts is advancing, with Citigroup analysts forecasting substantial annual Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) of US$1.91bn and industry EBITDA of approximately US$4.1bn, positioning Thailand as a significant regional gaming market.","focusai_entities":"Prasert Jantararuangtong, Thaksin Shinawatra, Prommin Lertsuridej, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Citigroup, George Choi, Preenapa Detchsri, Timothy Chau, Fiscal Policy Office (FPO), Bangkok Post, Bloomberg","focusai_location":"Thailand, Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Singapore, Macau, Las Vegas","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Framework Details","query":"What specific B2B and B2C licensing categories, responsible gambling mandates, and advertising restrictions are anticipated within Thailand's proposed online gambling and integrated resort regulatory frameworks?"},{"label":"Economic Impact & Tax Structure","query":"Beyond GGR and EBITDA projections, what are the detailed economic multiplier effects, job creation forecasts, and the precise gaming tax allocation mechanisms for both online and land-based operations in Thailand?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,158,16333],"tags":[23911,4138],"class_list":["post-777021785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777021785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777021803,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021785\/revisions\/777021803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777022006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777021785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777021785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777021785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}