The Thai Senate will today deliberate over a report from a special Senate panel that opposes the legalization of casino gaming within entertainment complexes.
According to the Bangkok Post, Senate Speaker Mongkol Surasajja confirmed Monday that the session would proceed, despite the schedule having been set some time ago and before the previous government’s Entertainment Complex Bill was removed from the House agenda in July due to anti-casino sentiment.
Local media outlets, including The Nation, report that the special Senate panel’s report on the bill is fully opposed to casino legislation – arguing that it violates Thailand’s constitution and would create more problems than benefits.
Specifically, it suggests that legal casinos would fuel an increase in gambling addiction, violence and crime which would burden the health care system; that casinos could become hubs for money laundering by criminal organizations; and that the bill could breach Article 3 requiring the government to uphold the rule of law for peace and order and Article 26 which prohibits laws that contradict the rule of law.
It also deems casinos incompatible with Thailand’s moral values and warns that legal casinos could harm its standing on the international stage.
The looming Senate debate comes after former Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra – who had championed the casino bill – was last month removed from office by the Constitutional Court for serious ethical misconduct linked to a phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen where she criticized the actions of the Thai army during a border conflict on 28 May that left a Cambodian soldier dead.
Her removal and the elevation of Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul to the role have been viewed as death-knells to any short-term realization of a legal casino industry in Thailand.
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