More urgent problems should take priority over a proposal by 12 National Reform Council (NRC) members to legalise casinos as a way of boosting state coffers and generating funds for development projects, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday.
"I haven't thought about this [the casino legalising proposal] just yet. Let's deal with [more important] problems of the country first. Whenever the time comes to consider legalising casinos, it will be then," he said when asked to comment on the idea.
The problems facing the agricultural sector including the drought and alarmingly low levels of water remaining in the country's major dams were more important, he said.
These issues were even more important than politics and elections which would be governed by the government's roadmap, and were making steady progress, Gen Prayut said.
Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva also expressed strong views against legalising casinos, saying if the government agrees to the proposal, it would come as a U-turn on its policy to promote morality in society.
Whenever the idea of legalising casinos is dusted off, two common reasons are usually cited to back it, Mr Abhisit said.
Advocates claim that legalising casinos was a way of battling underground gambling dens, and the businesses would help generate tax revenues, he said.
But a key question that had not been answered about legalising casinos as a way of resolving illegal gambling was whether legal casinos would be open to all, he said.
"If the answer is yes, then how could one be certain legal casinos won't lead to new problems?" he said.
Countries including Singapore that had legalised casinos ended up being seen as money-laundering paradises that are linked to criminal activities, involving local or transnational criminal gangs, Mr Abhisit said.
"But if the answer is 'no' which means, for instance, only tourists will be allowed to enter legal casinos, illegal gambling dens will still flourish," he said.
National police chief Somyot Poompunmuang on Wednesday said he backed the idea of legalising casinos, but suggested curbs be imposed on who can enter. He said they should be open to only people with means, and not residents in the local area.
He would create a website designed to compile public opinions regarding the idea, to be launched on Sept 1.
He described illegal gambling as "a pain the neck" to the police and said the inconvenient truth was that no matter how much authorities tried to clamp down on illegal gambling, it would not go away.
Meanwhile, two South Koreans have been caught running an online gambling racket, from a rented room in Bangkok's Klong Toey district. Lee Cheh Yang, 39 and Lee Cheh Min, 31, were arrested when police raided their rented room on the 18th floor of the Nusasiri condominium in Phra Khanong sub-district on Wednesday night.