Gambling in Southeast Asia is really taking off over the last few years, with even more countries getting ready to get in on all the action. Thailand is not one of them though, and they remain firm in their opposition to gambling in general.
Thailand does have limited legal gambling though, and the most popular form of gambling is playing the lottery. The lottery here was very popular even before it became legal, and the government looked at all of the money people were spending on it and decided that it would make sense for them to cash in on this bonanza themselves rather than let the black market make all of the money off of this.
Betting on horse racing is also permitted at two Bangkok race tracks which are also exempt from this law. These tracks are said to be frequented mostly by Bangkok high society and doesn’t’ really amount to that much as far as the overall amount of money that the Thai spend on gambling, as opposed to the lottery which is widely popular and also reaches into every corner of Thailand. (1)
Other than that, all other forms of gambling are illegal, under the Thailand Gambling Act of 1935. (2) This law prohibits all gambling not specifically authorized by law. The government hasn’t been too eager to authorize very much either.
Thailand Gambling Laws: Playing Card Act, B.E. Legal Rights of Transgenders and their Partners in Thailand: Sex Laws in Thailand Part 3: Civil Society. Established in 1905, Las Vegas, Nevada, has since become the gambling and entertainment capital of the world, famous for its casinos, nightclubs, and sporting events. In the first few decades. Gambling in Thailand - Is It Legal? (Source) Government-sponsored Thai lottery and betting on horse races are the only legal forms of gambling in Thailand. Thailand’s national official lottery or Thai lottery is drawn every month twice, i.e. On the 1st and 16th. This lottery is administered by GLO or the Government Lottery Office to maintain. Legal costs were separated into court costs, estimated at an annual cost of A$5.6 million; prison costs, estimated at an annual cost of approximately A$9 million; and police costs, estimated at an annual cost of A$2.6 million. The total estimate of legal costs emanating from problem gambling in New South Wales was approximately A$17.2 million.
There are other countries in Asia which have very strict anti-gambling laws, as well as countries elsewhere in the world, but a couple of things really stand out where Thailand is concerned, that really separate them from the pack here.
The first is the zeal that the government pursues gambling. While the penalties handed out aren‘t generally that severe, ranging from 500 to 5000 baht (about $15 to $150), and people found gambling are usually just fined, depending on the severity of the gambling, it also can carry up to 3 years imprisonment. The harsher penalties are generally reserved for organizers of the games though.
These laws apply to foreigners as well, and the authorities have been known to throw them in jail awaiting deportation, and deportation is often the response here in addition to fines, although if the offense is minor sometimes immigration officials will waive deportation. (3)
Foreigners and especially tourists charged with gambling can find themselves pretty intimidated though and often welcome a fine and deportation rather than facing more rigorous prosecution through the Thai justice system, so they very often plead guilty rather than having to post a long term bail bond, or if unable, serving several months in jail awaiting trial, and in either case having their stay perhaps extended far beyond what was anticipated.
There are over 50,000 arrests a year for gambling in Thailand, a huge amount, and anti gambling laws here aren’t just given lip service or exist primarily on paper only, like in a lot of places. The government is very serious about cracking down on it, and they take a very proactive approach to it as well, for instance having government agents spy on people, or set up gambling operations to entrap them. This is much more like a war on drugs than it is just looking to keep the peace, but the war here is on gambling.
Playing Poker In Thailand
Gambling Should Be Legal In Thailand Now
The other distinguishing feature of gambling in Thailand is that in spite of these strict laws and great efforts to enforce them, illegal gambling in Thailand is very rampant, and that’s even an understatement.
To give you an idea of how big the black market for gambling is here, they do have a legal national lottery, but there’s also a black market lotteries here, and black market lotteries are said to be even bigger than the official, legal one. The black market versions are said to offer better odds and that is why people find them more appealing.
The main reason why black market gambling is so big in Thailand though is that the Thai people have a voracious appetite for gambling, and 70% of the people here are regular gamblers, a huge amount. When you throw that up against the very limited amount of legal gambling, well there’s going to be a lot of illegal gambling going on, and indeed, the underground gambling market here is a very large one, in the billions per year. People very often will also travel to neighboring countries, especially Cambodia, where several casinos are set up along the border with Thailand specifically for this. (4)
In addition to this, underground casinos are said to be everywhere, although they do concentrate on casino games, and there isn’t much poker around within the underground scene, other than in home games, where you have to know the host to be invited. (5)
Playing poker for money is against the law of course, and while it’s not illegal to be in possession of a deck of cards, it is illegal to produce or import playing cards, under the Playing Cards Act of 1943. (6) This is designed to slow down card games for money, but nothing slows down gambling here very much.
While simply playing a game with cards isn’t illegal, the presumption will be that if you are doing this then you are gambling, unless you are playing a game like bridge at a licensed bridge club, but it is true that given the penchant for gambling here, if cards are being played, money is probably changing hands as well.
Online Gambling in Thailand
It’s also forbidden to gamble online in Thailand, including playing online poker, but if the strict laws aren’t that effective in slowing down land based gambling, where there is a real risk of arrest, then online poker players here aren’t going to be too put out by the fact online poker is against the law here as well, especially since it’s very difficult to catch people doing this.
Given that the government here isn’t shy to enforce anti gambling laws, it’s not a surprise that they look to block people from accessing online gambling sites and online poker sites, as the government does in several other countries.
The actions of the government here isn’t just limited to this though, as they are particularly eager to prevent gambling in this country, and for those who do wish to play online poker, special care is advised, for instance you don’t want to be using a Thai credit card and also be found to be accessing online poker sites through a Thai ISP, and the government is known here to go to extremes to try to catch gamblers and even though it’s much more difficult to do so with online poker, they are still on the case here.
So this is a case where it’s a good idea to use a proxy to connect to online poker sites, even when playing, such as a virtual private network, and it’s also a good idea to use an internet wallet located in another country to move money in and out of these sites.
Gambling Should Be Legal In Thailand Legal
So there are a lot of online poker players in Thailand who enjoy online poker and with a little caution many feel pretty safe doing so. One of my top recommendations would probably be BetOnline Poker & Casino, which accepts players from almost EVERY location in the world minus the United States and several other countries.
References:
1. Online Gambling Sites in Thailand
2. Thailand Gambling Act
3. The Dangers of Gambling in Thailand
4. Thailand Gambling
5. Q&A With a Poker Player in Thailand
6. Playing Cards Act of 1943
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In Thailand the anti-gambling laws are many and include both Royal Decrees and Acts of Parliament. Before covering these, I should explain I am profession gambler that lives here and I am very familiar with our gambling industry. In this article I will explain the law, discuss how widespread gambling is and conclude with information regarding our legal forms of gambling which are horse races held in Bangkok and our national lottery.
Thailand Gambling Law
The primary law that regulates gambling in Thailand is the Gambling Act, B.E. 2478 (1935). If you click that link you will see there are 46 ministerial regulations, 16 legal opinions of Council of State and a Royal Decree all related to this law.
There are also many separate laws relating to gambling. One example is the Playing Cards Act, B.E. 2486 (1943) which makes owning, manufacturing and selling playing cards a crime. Furthermore, the Anti-Money Laundering Act, B.E. 2542 (1999) strengthens our anti-gambling law in certain cases.
While what I just shared is a lot of reading and doesn’t cover it all, Thailand gambling law is very easy to understand as far as gamblers (as opposed to those “offering gambling”) are concerned. In short: doing anything that may appear to be gambling (playing cards with no money involved even, or having gambling devices) and actual gambling – have penalties ranging from a 1,000 baht fine to one-year in prison.
In all my years involved in the Thai gambling industry, the closest I have heard of gamblers being jailed were the several times farang (foreigners) were detained and deported over poker. While perhaps it does happen, my experience is that Thai people caught gambling are only fined and quite often the matter is settled with an on the spot payment to police. It is also my experience that the strict part of our gambling law applies not to players but rather to gambling den owners, junkets, bookies, agents and gambling banks.
Thai People Love to Gamble
Despite our strict anti-gambling law, illegal gambling is widespread in Thailand. Chulalongkorn professor of economics Pasuk Phongpaichit is famous for his book Utsahakam Kan Phanan (The Gambling Industry). He estimates 70% of Thai people are regular gamblers. Living here and having visited dozens of provinces, my opinion is that he may be correct.
All over the country gambling can be found. In major cities casinos exist in the basement of office space malls and rented upscale apartments. In villages casinos are often in someone’s home, or are just a mat spread out to play dice such as in the photo shown left. Card games with friends, football betting with bookies, or playing numbers draws with non official sources are all common too.
Casinos Near Thailand
Another factor in gambling being widespread is all of our land borders have casinos. Wikipedia entry: Poipet can’t help but mention gambling because hosting Thai gamblers is what this Cambodian town is known for. Here the famous Crown Casino has a sportsbook with odds on nearly all football matches form around the world. They also have a gambling website 9crown.com. As you can see here, Thais can bet online and withdrawal in cash at the casino. As this casino is located in the land between entry/exit points it is possible to visit without being stamped in to Cambodia.
The same is true even in the Northeast. For example: the Nong Khai crossing into Laos is another area where Thais can gamble in the duty free zone between check points. We also have cheap flights with AirAsia to many casino destinations such as Malaysia and Singapore. While more upscale, 2012 Macau tourism figures show 231,295 arrivals from Thailand that year.
Junkets are another aspect of gambling in Thailand. The largest casino in Laos is Savan Vegas. Their company website is only offered in English and Thai (not Lao). Most interesting is their getting here page starts with:
“We offer a Thai Bus program, Rolling Program and Airfare program with high commission and other benefits. Any Junket or agent who is interested, please contact VIP Service or Sales and Marketing for more information at the following numbers:”
Getting Thai people to visit Cambodia and Lao casinos and Victoria Point in Burma (which is reachable by boat shuttle from Ranong) is big business, but understand these casinos may not be safe and there is no guarantee the games are fair. The Thai government has posted the notice shown right on their side of border crossings.
The same as Crown in Cambodia: Savant Vegas in Laos in another of many casinos in the region that offers online betting too. Players can play casino games online while in Thailand and then collect with this casino in person. Understand these online casinos have next to no regulation for game fairness. If you are interested in a much safer options read OnlineBetting.com’s 3rd series in the set of articles found at the bottom of the page.
Before I conclude this section, I feel compelled to stress that what I covered here does not even come close to covering how widespread gambling is in Thailand. Even our legal lottery has a massive black market with at least one person in every village running books that offer better odds than the official draw. Gambling on Muay Thai is very popular as is football betting, card games and even cock-fight wagers. In short it is best explained by saying most of Thailand loves to gamble.
Legal Gambling in Thailand
In Thailand we have only two forms of gambling that are exempt from the laws mentioned in this article. The less popular is horse racing in Bangkok which is mostly done at clubs reserved for hi-so (high society) types. However, twice a month there are public race days where betting at the track’s official tote is legal. This is something those living outside Bangkok are not very interested in. Far more popular, and it’s not even close, is playing our national lottery.
In Thailand the lottery is drawn on the first and sixteenth of every month. For reason most of the English language articles on the topic are poorly written and/or contain many errors I have decided to cover this final topic is its own article called Thai Lottery Explained.
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