Bangkok: government opens to gambling, doubts in civil society
To make cash, the Ministry of Economy is preparing a feasibility study. Paetongtarn Shinawatra talks about “bringing out of the shadows” an activity that would already involve between two and four million Thais. Criticism over moral aspects in a country where Buddhist faith condemns gaming and possible social consequences.
Bangkok (AsiaNews) - The difficulties facing the Thai economy are prompting authorities to seek new sources of revenue for the public coffers, even the opening to online gambling, a possibility that is provoking a heated debate between moral question, legality and expediency.
Hence the call from several quarters for the executive to carefully weigh the risks and benefits of legalizing and regulating this activity, which in any case would require coordination of multiple ministries and several legislative interventions.
A feasibility study specially commissioned by the vice-premier and Minister of Economy and Digital Society will be ready within a couple of months, but also reinforcing the pro-legalization line is the position of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who recently, on a public occasion, spoke out on the need to bring out of the shadows and make profitable for the state coffers an activity that would already involve two to four million Thais.
Thaksin's suggested rules are similar to that of the state lottery, starting with a minimum age of 20 and mandatory medical treatment for those who should develop addiction.
In favor is another deputy prime minister, Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul: “At the heart of the discussions on this issue that have been going on within the government for months is the lack of objections regarding online gambling, whether the expected taxes can be collected, and whether measures to prevent money laundering will be implemented.”
His ministry and other government agencies are reportedly already working to amend the gaming law to allow the inclusion of online gambling.
The doubts concern the moral aspect, highlighted in the attempt to curb the opening of gambling houses in the country, whose predominant Buddhist faith condemns both gambling as well as addiction. The second are the social problems these activities bring with them or radicalize, including criminal activities that thrive on them involving and exploiting even weaker segments of the population starting with the youth.
The political opposition points the finger at the difficulty of security agencies to control even now criminal initiatives that take advantage of the possibilities of dissemination and untraceability of perpetrators offered by the network.
Adequate training of security officers and efficient monitoring structures would therefore be needed. Also, however, as pointed out by Supisarn Bhakdinarinath, a member of the dissolved progressive and anti-establishment Move Forward party now among the promoters of the People's Party, “that parliamentarians be held accountable and punished according to the law in the event of any negative consequences arising from the legalization of online gaming.”
.png)
08/10/2019 13:10
