Thailand is pressing ahead with plans to legalise casinos, as it seeks to burnish the country’s appeal as a tourism hotspot and draw billions of dollars in foreign investment and taxes.

Draft rules to allow casinos with an initial licence for 30 years were published for public feedback until Aug 18 by the Council of State, the government’s legal agency. The casinos will have the option of renewing the permit for another 10 years and be housed in large entertainment complexes along with hotels, convention centres and amusement parks, among others.

Thailand joins the United Arab Emirates and Japan in competing for a pie of the global casino industry, which IBIS World estimates generated US$263 billion in revenue last year. Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd and MGM Resorts International have been studying potential opening of casino resorts in the Southeast Asian nation as a hedge against uncertain prospects in Macau. Las Vegas Sands Corp said last month that it would be interested in expanding to Thailand, if it “becomes available”.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who took power less than a year ago, has been aggressively pushing policies to attract foreign investments to Thailand, and backed the plan to legalise casinos for better oversight and proper tax collection.

The country’s 500-member House of Representatives has already backed a study by a panel of lawmakers that favoured the setting up of legalised casinos within large entertainment venues, to attract high-spending tourists. The study found that Thailand can lift tourism revenue by about US$12 billion by legalising casinos and housing them within large entertainment complexes.

Though most types of betting is illegal in Thailand - a majority Buddhist and conservative society - any opening of casinos will be in line with its recent embrace of a more liberal landscape to revive its tourism industry from the pandemic blow. In 2022, Thailand became the first country in Asia to decriminalise cannabis, and is on course to become the first in Southeast Asia to legalise same-sex marriages.

The so-called large entertainment venues should be in locations designated by the government and run by companies registered in Thailand, with a paid-up capital of not less than 10 billion baht (US$283 million), according to the draft bill. It also proposes setting up a comprehensive entertainment venue policy panel, led by the prime minister and an agency to regulate the new industry.

Thai officials have previously mentioned popular tourist destinations such as Greater Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Chonburi, home to beach resort Pattaya, as possible locations for the entertainment complexes. 

Tourism is one of Thailand’s key industries, accounting for about 20% of total jobs and making up roughly 12% of the nation’s US$500 billion economy. Foreign arrivals this year through July have jumped about 34% to more than 20 million, from the same period in 2023.

  - Bloomberg