Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Thailand to hold referendum on legalising casinos Agence France-Presse Bangkok, November 26
Thailand will hold a referendum early next year to determine whether to legalise casinos in the kingdom, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Wednesday.
"I will consult the public in the form of a referendum as to whether they want casinos to be built in their provinces or not, and with a simple majority this government will allow construction of casinos," he told reporters.
Thaksin said that if the referendum gave the green light, the government would allow private companies to run the businesses, copying the model successfully adopted in Australia and the United States.
A recent Chulalongkorn University study found that Thais lost up to 518.6 billion baht (12.2 billion dollars) in 2001 to underground lotteries, overseas and illegal local casinos, soccer betting and other illicit gambling.
Some 18 to 25.5 billion baht of the losses went into the pockets of corrupt police and politicians, it said.
Currently, most forms of gambling are outlawed in Thailand but to circumvent the ban, some 500,000 people flock every year to casinos across the border in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2003.