Government Parties Push for Legalisation of Thailand Gambling Industry

Leader of the Local Power Party in Thailand, Chutchawan Kong-u-dom, headed a group of smaller parties on Wednesday in submitting a draft amendment to the Gambling Act.

Allowing for the legalisation of casinos and online gambling, Mr Chutchawan, also known as “Chat Taopoon”, and his party members along with 20 representatives of smaller parties sent in the draft amendment to House Speaker Chuan Leekpai.

The draft amendment targets legalization of online casinos to generate revenue in the country amid the post-covid19 recovery.

Mr Chutchawan said he is also setting his sights on online gambling and the duty-free business.

Kovit Puangngam, a party list-MP of the Thai Local Power Party, said that with the right law in place, authorities can collect taxes from the licence holders, and better control illegal casino operators:

“The draft amendment to the Gambling Act to legalise casinos and underground lotteries is meant to generate income while the country faces massive national debt.”

Mr Kovit said that the country is expected to earn a staggering 1.5 trillion baht  revenue from tax collection and application fees for online casinos.

The draft bill also includes the operations of a casino in each of Thailand’s four regions in provinces most-visited by tourists, to help generate at least 400-600 billion baht a year, Kovit added.