Thailand continues to wrestle with what the best course of action for regulating its incoming land-based casinos are, with many ideas in the air right now
Thailand’s Prime Minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, has shared details about new verification and screening processes that may apply at Thailand’s casinos. The country is now tinkering with the idea of running KYC and AML checks on land-based customers, and foreign nationals in particular, adding to a previous suggestion that would have needed for any local entering the casino floor to have an outsized fixed deposit in their bank.
KYC and AML Checks May Be Necessary for Future Casino Players from Abroad
The previous measure has been criticized as highly impractical, and the new one appears to be similarly restrictive and demanding.
Wealth and criminal background checks for international visitors are good in theory, as they would put Thailand’s fledgling gambling industry on a firm footing and avoid some of the mistakes committed by other jurisdictions, including Australia, whose casino giants have been plagued by regulatory scrutiny due to a poor record in keeping criminals away.
The practicality of such measure, though, would be a challenge to implement in practice, as it is yet unclear what means casinos would have to use to ensure that an individual is not a criminal.
Another issue stems from the fact that wealth checks are generally frowned upon in most of the world, and a person coming to gamble in Thailand’s future casinos may be loath to disclose financial information to the casino.
However, the Prime Minister has remained unfaltering in her commitment to see the project through. Speaking at Empowering Thais, she said:
“Entertainment complexes will not lead Thailand to its worst vices. Developed countries like Singapore, the US, Japan, and the UAE follow this global trend. They know that sand, sun, and sea are not enough any longer. There must be manmade. We don’t want Thailand to miss the trend.”
Thai PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra
Paetongtarn was referring to the fact that many of Thailand’s regional neighbors have already been offering casino gaming and entertainment, and that these complexes are an important part of a broader economic strategy.
Opposition Still Firm, Government Busy Handling Tariffs
However, opposition has proliferated. Academics have pointed out that Thailand is historically bad at regulating industries that are prone to corruption and that gambling could lead to high levels of money-launderings, something that the current administration must be paying attention to given the decision to at least consider the implementation of draconian AML and KYC checks for foreign patrons.
On the other hand, ensuring that only legitimate people enter gaming floors is a sign that Thailand is not betting purely on the casino floors at all. Rather, the emphasis is on developing the entire resort. Fears about the feasibility, perceived economic windfall, and morality of such projects remain.
Critics though will be happy to hear that the government has put efforts to push through with the legislation needed to establish casinos on the backburner due to the immediate issues that have to do with the US-led tariffs against the rest of the world.
