{"id":16495,"date":"2015-07-28T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16495"},"modified":"2022-10-22T15:29:31","modified_gmt":"2022-10-22T23:29:31","slug":"venetian-bangkok-online-gaming-gains-a-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/venetian-bangkok-online-gaming-gains-a-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Venetian Bangkok?; Online gaming gains a champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> has let it be known that, should Thailand<\/strong> legalize casinos, it would like to get a foot in the door — in the form of a \"sheldon-tux\"<\/a>metaresort like its $5.7 billion Marina Bay Sands<\/strong> in Singapore<\/strong>. That’s all well and good but the Thai government remains hopelessly at odds with itself on the issue. When\u00a0National Police Chief General Somyot Poompanmoung<\/strong> voiced his approval of legalized casinos, Thai strongman Prime\u00a0Minister General Prayut Chan-O-cha<\/strong> told him to put a sock in it<\/a>. The country is still without a new constitution and many parliamentarians would rather concentrate upon that.<\/p>\n

Even Tourism &\u00a0Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul<\/strong>, whom one would think would support casinos, expressed what Forbes<\/em>‘ Muhammad Cohen<\/strong> called “studied ambivalence” about the issue, doubting it would grow the tourist market. Still, it’s a tourist mix ripe for the picking: five million Chinese, followed by Malaysians, Russians, Japanese, South Koreans and Indians. With the exception of the former, all those groups have either very limited casino access in their home countries or none at all.<\/p>\n

Add a multi-billion-dollar torrent of Thai money being wagered in Cambodia<\/strong>‘s casinos and there’s definitely an incentive to act, as the National Reform Council<\/strong> recently advised the government to do. \"Garuda_Emblem_of_Thailand.svg\"<\/a>However, opposition to gambling in Thailand (as opposed to gambling by Thais) runs deep. As Thai expert Christopher Moore<\/strong> says,\u00a0\u201cA deep seated socially conservative elite fears the masses would not be able to control their impulse to wager all to the ruin of their family …\u00a0The moral crusaders have their allies in the vast network of illegal casino owners and their network, all of whom would suffer economic loss should casinos become legal. Prohibition creates gangsters and corruption.”<\/p>\n

If so, bluenoses and mobsters currently hold most of the\u00a0the high cards in Thailand right now.<\/p>\n

* Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>‘s crusade against Internet<\/strong> gambling has gained momentum in Congress<\/strong> (most recently his lackeys proposed a moratorium on further legalization while a bogus “study” is conducted). While ‘Net betting has few friends on Capitol Hill<\/strong>, some state representatives are getting their backs up. The latest is New York<\/strong> Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow<\/strong> (D, left<\/em>), who unloaded on Congress in an op-ed. He accuses lawmakers of backpedaling on important issues and making Internet gambling (like New York State’s proposed online poker) a mistaken priority.<\/p>\n

“In New York, our lottery helps to fund education \u2014 to the tune of $3.11 billion dollars in fiscal 2014-15 alone …” Pretlow writes, “[Restoring America’s Wire Act<\/strong>]\u00a0would ban online lotteries, risking education \"Sheldon\"<\/a>dollars in New York and over a dozen other states around the country.” Reiterating a point Congress seems too dense to grasp, he adds, “Estimates show that one million consumers spend upwards of $3 billion annually in this illegal overseas market, and our local and federal law enforcement officers are powerless to protect them from fraud and abuse,” especially when the current electronic-fencing and geolocation tools are taken from them.<\/p>\n

Alluding to the Tenth Amendment, Pretlow concludes, “New York, and every state, deserves to be able to determine what gaming exists within its borders and how it is regulated \u2014 we always have had that right and it defies logic that Congress would step in now to undercut it.” The question is, is anyone on Capitol Hill listening?<\/p>\n

* The State of Florida<\/strong> has tipped its hand in the ongoing political game over the Seminole Tribe<\/strong>‘s blackjack exclusivity. It wants a date-certain shutdown of the games. In other words, Gov. Rick Scott<\/strong> (R) doesn’t want those damn Injuns dealin’ that there 21. Theoretically, mediation is the next step but it appears that’s just a speed bump on an express highway to litigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas Sands has let it be known that, should Thailand legalize casinos, it would like to get a foot in the door — in the form of a metaresort like its $5.7 billion Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. That’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,22,171,200,12,108,187],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16495"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31788,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16495\/revisions\/31788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}