Thailand completes major U-turn on domestic exclusions

A dramatic U-turn in Thailand has seen officials backtrack on a move that would have essentially excluded the vast majority of Thai citizens from its proposed land-based casinos.

It had previously been touted that Thai officials would implement a rule that meant that Thai citizens would need at least $1.5m in assets to access casinos in the country.

However, underlining the country’s major plans to build a significant gaming ecosystem, these plans have been paused as they would exclude too many local players from the casinos.

Significant amendments to the bill will see a three-year tax history being enough to ensure that Thai nationals can enter the premises and gamble.

Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat told reporters that the previously touted criteria for entry to casinos would fail to solve issues of illegal gambling, as he underlined that there were just 10,000 deposit accounts in the country with more than 50m baht, which would mean a large number of players would ..