{"id":777023054,"date":"2025-02-18T09:50:48","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T12:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777023054"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:41:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:41:32","slug":"bill-to-legalise-casinos-in-thailand-could-be-debated-in-parliament-before-year-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/bill-to-legalise-casinos-in-thailand-could-be-debated-in-parliament-before-year-end","title":{"rendered":"Bill to legalise casinos in Thailand could be debated in Parliament before year-end"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Council of State is expected to complete its review on March 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Thailand.- The Finance Ministry expects legislation to allow casino resorts to be debated in Parliament before the end of this year. The draft bill was approved on January 13 and sent to the Council of State for review, after which it will be sent to the House of Representatives for consideration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Council of State is due to complete its review of the draft bill<\/a> on March 6. It is believed to be discussing what proportion of each complex can be occupied by a casino. Deputy finance minister Jualporn Amonvivat has requested a limit of 10 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legislation 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

Analysts at Citigroup have forecast that casinos in Thailand 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities propose strict casino entry rules for Thais<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A report released yesterday (February 17) suggests that Thai nationals wishing to gamble in casinos would need to have at least THB50m (US$1.5m) in fixed deposits for at least six months. According to Reuters, the measure would prevent many citizens from entering the venues as per capita gross domestic product is about US$7,300, according to government data. Casino entry fees for Thai nationals have been set at THB5,000 (US$144).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former prime minister\u00a0Abhisit Vejjajiva<\/strong> has previously criticised the plan to\u00a0legalise\u00a0casinos and online gambling arguing the plan was \u201cdangerous\u201d and that online gambling, in particular, would cause a negative social impact by increasing household debts and crime rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Stop Gambling Foundation<\/strong>, along with a group of legal experts, anti-gambling advocates and representatives from various institutions and professional groups, aims to collect 50,000 signatures to demand a referendum on the plan. A survey conducted by the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida)\u00a0<\/strong>found the majority of Thais to be opposed to the government’s plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Council of State is expected to complete its review on March 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26802,"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's Finance Ministry anticipates parliamentary debate on casino resort legislation by year-end, following the Council of State's review completion on March 6. The proposed framework includes 30-year licenses, significant capital requirements for operators, and strict entry rules for Thai nationals, while facing considerable public and political opposition. Citigroup analysts project annual GGR of US$1.91bn, positioning Thailand as a major regional gaming market.","focusai_entities":"Finance Ministry, Council of State, House of Representatives, Jualporn Amonvivat, Citigroup, Abhisit Vejjajiva, Stop Gambling Foundation, National Institute of Development Administration, Reuters","focusai_location":"Thailand, Singapore, Macau, Las Vegas","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.7), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (1.0), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Framework Details?","query":"What specific governance frameworks and regulatory compliance mechanisms are being proposed beyond licensing, particularly concerning responsible gambling, AML, and advertising standards for the nascent Thai iGaming market?"},{"label":"Economic Impact Analysis?","query":"Given the projected GGR, what is the anticipated net economic impact on Thailand, considering potential tourism uplift versus social costs and the strict entry requirements for local citizens?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[24628,154,158,16333],"tags":[23907],"class_list":["post-777023054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023054","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=777023054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777023073,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023054\/revisions\/777023073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777023054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777023054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777023054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}