With legal casinos coming to Thailand, a gaming industry expert at G2E Asia expressed doubts about the market’s attractiveness for global gaming operators. Paul Bromberg of Spectrum Gaming Group said if Thailand fails to implement a strong regulatory framework like that in Singapore, the industry’s biggest names may not come running.
According to a report in Inside Asian Gaming, the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and MGM Resorts International both have expressed interest in the Thai market. But Bromberg says the government raised questions with its handling of another hot-topic issue—medical marijuana. He called it “a debacle.”
“The basis of that was quite good—legalize it for medical purposes only,” he said. “But the legislation they sent through was pretty much carte blanche legalization of marijuana across the country, and now people are complaining. They’re up in arms.
“As far as casinos are concerned, most people are in favor, because it might make money for the country,” he continued. “That’s fair enough, but they don’t understand the regulatory government will that needs to be imposed for the industry to be successful. I don’t think politicians understand that. Maybe business will understand that and they can work together, but I think it will be a long, drawn-out process.”
He added that casinos may come to Thailand before MGM opens its planned integrated resort in Osaka, Japan in 2029, as the government is motivated to get this to the finish line.
“If you can legalize marijuana, you can legalize casinos and if they want to do it they can do it fairly quickly,” Bromberg said. “Nobody knows the future, but it will happen sooner rather than later.”
Daniel Cheng, former senior vice president of development for Hard Rock International, agreed that casino legislation in Thailand now appears a certainty, but disagreed with Bromberg’s contention that the market has limited appeal.
“We can’t discount the fact that the extraordinary government committee to discuss casino legislation has, since December last year, had two dozen meetings collectively, so the will is very clear,” he said.
“I think there is a difference between the legislation itself and the implementation, so I think the Thai government would be able to craft legislation that is of a standard high enough that international investors would be compliant with their home jurisdictions to invest in Thailand. But then the reality itself when it finally opens, just like cannabis, is another story.”
MGM Resorts President Global Development Ed Bowers said his company is interested, but only if it can win the license potentially earmarked for Bangkok. Four other regional licenses would be made available under the proposed plan.
Though Thailand is one of only three ASEAN nations without legal casinos, along with Indonesia and Brunei, as many as half of its adult population gamble illegally, including crossing the border to casinos in Cambodia.
