{"id":777024516,"date":"2025-03-26T10:02:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T13:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777024516"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:27:15","slug":"thai-casino-resorts-should-be-established-in-secondary-cities-tha-president-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/thai-casino-resorts-should-be-established-in-secondary-cities-tha-president-says","title":{"rendered":"Thai casino resorts should be established in secondary cities, THA president says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun, president of the Thai Hotels Association, said locations should be chosen to prevent overtourism in major destinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Thailand.- Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun<\/strong>, president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), has suggested that entertainment complexes with casinos should be built in secondary cities to avoid overtourism in popular destinations. He said this could help attract investment and more tourism to less-known areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nikom Boonwiset<\/strong>, vice-chairman of a special committee overseeing Thailand\u2019s proposed casino legislation, has said that Bangkok, Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, and Phuket could become the first four locations<\/a>. However, in a discussion hosted by Krungthep Turakij, Chaiyapatranun suggested referendums should be held in these provinces and said that residents in Phuket are against a casino because of worries about overcrowding and traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also raised concerns about illegal hotels, money laundering, and unrestricted casino access and urged the government to create clear and strict rules to build public trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thai tourism operators warn that legalising casinos could lead to drop in Chinese visitors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The opposition People’s Party has said that tourism operators are concerned that casino legislation<\/a> could cause Chinese visitation to drop According to the Bangkok Post, MP Parit Wacharasindhu<\/strong> noted that Beijing attempts to limit the number of Chinese citizens going abroad for gambling. He suggested this has already had a negative impact on destinations with legal casinos, such as Singapore, the Philippines, and Macau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, Thai prime minister\u00a0Paetongtarn Shinawatra<\/strong>\u00a0met Chinese president\u00a0Xi Jinping<\/strong>. Xi warned that the legalisation could increase criminal activity and lead to gambling harm. Shinawatra <\/strong>insisted that casinos would be less than 10 per cent of each project, and that they would be family-friendly destinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft bill to legalise casinos in Thailand approved on January 13 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).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun, president of the Thai Hotels Association, said locations should be chosen to prevent overtourism in major destinations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21522,"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 advancing its casino legalization efforts, with discussions centered on strategically locating integrated resorts in secondary cities to mitigate overtourism in major destinations. Key stakeholders are raising concerns regarding potential declines in Chinese tourism due to Beijing's anti-gambling stance, the imperative for robust regulatory compliance to prevent money laundering, and the need for clear governance frameworks to build public trust.","focusai_entities":"Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun, Thai Hotels Association, Nikom Boonwiset, Krungthep Turakij, People\u2019s Party, Parit Wacharasindhu, Bangkok Post, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Xi Jinping","focusai_location":"Thailand, Bangkok, Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Singapore, Philippines, Macau, Beijing","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.95), affiliate_publisher (0.7), marketing_crm (0.75), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.98)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Location Strategy Impact","query":"How might the proposed strategy of locating integrated resorts in secondary cities impact initial GGR projections and the overall investment attractiveness compared to prime tourist destinations?"},{"label":"Mitigating Chinese Visitor Drop","query":"What specific policy measures or marketing strategies could the Thai government and future operators implement to mitigate the potential drop in Chinese visitation due to Beijing's stance on overseas gambling?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16333],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-777024516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024516","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=777024516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777024534,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024516\/revisions\/777024534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777024516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777024516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777024516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}