Thailand poised to give go ahead to casinos

Thailand is set to give the go-ahead to gambling and introduce casinos.

The Asian nation's cabinet this week approved a bill to legalise casino gambling.

The draft bill will now be assessed by the Council of State before debating it the lower house of parliament, said Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

The bill allows for gambling only within Las Vegas-style integrated resorts which feature various non-gaming facilities such as hotels, convention centres, shopping and theme park attractions, news portal Travel Mole reported.

Melco, Galaxy Entertainment and MGM Resorts are among the companies said to be showing interest in operating casino resorts.

The business community has lauded the decision as a boon for domestic tourism growth and the economy in general.

Casinos and most forms of gambling are currently illegal in Thailand, but soccer betting and underground gaming activities and lotteries are rife, with huge sums of money changing hands.

Well-regulated integrated gambling facilities already operate in Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Japan has approved a similar bill to establish integrated casino resorts.

Image: Calanda McIester, Scop.io

Thais to turn from marijuana to gambling

Thailand flirted with marijuana and then did a quick reverse ferret.

Now the Asian tourism hostpot is considering allowing casinos to boost international tourism.

The Thai government is considering legalising casinos to draw investment and tourism, a study submitted to the House of Representative has shown, but previous proposals have failed because of unease among the public, the Bangkok Post reports.

State-sanctioned horse race betting is currently the only gambling officially sanctioned, but insiders believe Thailand could rival the world's biggest gambling hub, Macau: the only place in China where citizens can legally gamble in casinos.

Many travel industry leaders believe legal casino resort gambling would be a major attraction for overseas tourists, and successful, even if it remained illegal or heavily restricted to Thai citizens.

Legalisation of gambling has been discussed in the past but no government has gone ahead due to public opposition. In a 2021 opinion poll, 46.51% opposed legalised gambling due to moral and crime concerns. Only 21.25% supported the idea.

The previous parliament approved a similar study last year but the house was dissolved before the cabinet could consider it.

Meet a bigger-than-ever floating casino

Bigger is better. That's often the motto in the US, and also the cruise industry, which just loves big things.

Now Princess Cruises is set to launch its biggest-ever casino at sea.

The 4,300-guest Sun Princess will have an expanded ship casino with 50% more space and 30% more machines than the line’s regular Royal Class ships.

Sun Princess sets sail in February 2024 and sounds like a floating RSL to me. 

I guess the market will decide. It might appeal to folk from Big Butt, Arkansas, where they don't have RSLs.

Located on deck 8 adjacent to the ship's piazza, there will be over 200 slot machines, video poker games and live table games.

“Princess has embraced the casino experience and is proud to offer such exciting gaming surrounded by dining and entertainment,” said John Padgett, president of Princess Cruises, said in a media statement.

The cruise ship casino will have a high-limit slot area, with high-end seating and other new gaming experiences.

Sun Princess is currently under construction at the famous Fincantieri shipyard in Italy.

Inaugural 2024 cruises to the Mediterranean, Europe and Caribbean are on sale now. For more information, visit www.princess.com.

Visiting Macao? Expect to pay more for your hotel room

Your hotel room in Macao might well cost you more this year - and service quality might well have dropped.

Severe staff shortages have left thousands of Macao hotel rooms closed in the short term, Travel Mole reports.

The lack of staff is leading to room rate increases and a drop in service quality, the Macau Responsible Gaming Association says.

Some of the major Macao hotel resorts have up to half their rooms shuttered.

The gaming reliant Macao economy needs a high number of migrant workers but has struggled to fill hospitality positions as inbound visitor numbers rise

“We didn’t expect the reopening would come so fast, so everybody’s unprepared,” said association president Billy Song.

“After three dismal years, we all want to make the best out of this year, but now that customers have come, we don’t have enough capacity to receive them.”

Some Macao hotels have ditched daily housekeeping and are only cleaning rooms after guests check out - which is unlikely to impress high-end guests.

Thousands of hotel rooms have been cut from booking systems as well as the cutback on guest services.

Over 44,000 foreign employees have left Macao since early 2020 due to pandemic closures.