{"id":777027844,"date":"2025-06-16T10:03:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T13:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777027844"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:51:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:51:47","slug":"petition-from-civil-society-groups-calls-to-hold-a-referendum-on-thai-casino-legalisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/petition-from-civil-society-groups-calls-to-hold-a-referendum-on-thai-casino-legalisation","title":{"rendered":"Petition calls for referendum on Thai casino legalisation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Backed by 53,900 signatures, the petition has been submitted to the Election Commission (EC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Thailand.- More than 100 representatives from civil society organisations have submitted a petition to the Election Commission (EC), calling on the government to hold a national referendum on the legalisation of casinos in Thailand<\/a>. The petition is backed by 53,900 signatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Bangkok Post, Kornkanok Makboon, the petition coordinator, said it took 120 days from January to May, to get enough signatures to pass a 50,000-signature threshold set by Thailand\u2019s National Referendum Act. The Electoral Commission has 30 days to verify the signatures. If the petition meets legal criteria, it will be forwarded to the Office of the Secretariat of the Cabinet for consideration by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanakorn Khomkrit, secretary-general of a body called the Stop Gambling Foundation, was quoted saying: \u201cA referendum would provide the government with a clear mandate from the people, reducing public resistance and giving investors confidence in the legal framework supporting casino developments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, the Senate committee reviewing the bill to legalise casino resorts in Thailand suggested that the government should conduct a referendum<\/a> and that otherwise the bill could be unconstitutional if it becomes law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Backed by 53,900 signatures, the petition has been submitted to the Election Commission (EC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":777027990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Civil society organizations in Thailand have submitted a petition with over 53,900 signatures to the Election Commission, advocating for a national referendum on casino legalization. This initiative, which surpassed the required 50,000-signature threshold, aims to provide the government with a clear public mandate, thereby reducing resistance and bolstering investor confidence in the regulatory framework for integrated resort developments.","focusai_entities":"Election Commission, Kornkanok Makboon, Stop Gambling Foundation, Thanakorn Khomkrit, Senate committee","focusai_location":"Thailand","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"EC Verification Process","query":"What are the Election Commission's established protocols and typical timelines for verifying the validity of such a significant petition, and what are the subsequent procedural steps for government consideration?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Impact","query":"Should a referendum mandate casino legalization, how would this influence the specific legislative development of B2B and B2C licensing, taxation structures, and comprehensive responsible gambling frameworks in Thailand?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16333],"tags":[29,225,342],"class_list":["post-777027844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-casino","tag-legislation","tag-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027844","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\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777027844"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777027850,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027844\/revisions\/777027850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777027990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777027844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777027844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777027844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}