Factors combine to encourage illegal casinos

Among those punished are the commander of the Metropolitan Police’s Division 5 and the superintendents of the Bang Na and Klong Tan police stations.

This is not the first time senior police officers have been transferred in relation to high-profile gambling arrests in their areas of jurisdiction. And, if past experience is any indicator, it certainly will not be the last.

National police chief General Adul Sangsingkaew, who approved the transfer orders, said there would be more such raids by the CSD, because he’d learned that many city police stations are turning a blind eye to illegal gambling dens in their areas. He also threatened to punish police commanders in areas where raids on illegal casinos take place.

Adul’s remarks imply that the police are aware of gambling dens in their areas of jurisdiction, but fail to make arrests.

Arrests actually are made from time to time, but the targets are often the gamblers themselves, not the owners or operators. They also tend to be smaller gambling dens. Larger gaming houses of casino size are often spared, although gamblers and local residents – including taxi-drivers – know exactly where they are located.

Many people blame bribe-taking by corrupt law enforcers for the boom in illegal gambling dens in Thailand. According to a study conducted two years ago by Associate Professor Sangsit Piriyarangsan, an expert in underworld business, Bangkok alone has an estimated 170 such gambling dens, 10 of them large, which generate annual revenue between Bt180 billion and Bt200 billion. He found that between 5 and 20 per cent of that revenue, or Bt2 billion to Bt8 billion, was paid as bribes to corrupt police officers. Annual revenue from gambling dens throughout the country is estimated at Bt640 billion to Bt820 billion.

MP Chuwit Kamolvisit, who has famously said he constantly had to pay off corrupt policemen when he ran massage parlours, last year claimed that an illegal Bangkok casino gave police Bt2 million a day to let it keep operating.

A subsequent public-opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration found almost 80 per cent of respondents believing Chuwit’s claim that police routinely accept bribes from gambling houses.

The problem of illegal gambling dens will continue as long as there are corrupt law enforcers, high returns from the business and gamblers to provide the custom. In other words – with factors such as the poor salaries of police officers and a national penchant for gambling – it will be difficult, if not impossible, to stamp out this problem in Thailand.

Professor Sangsit suggests as a long-term solution a reform of the police force to minimise corruption, as well as the legalisation of casinos. However, he admits that, even if legal casinos were allowed, there would still be illegal gambling establishments.

In addition to reforming the police force, amending the anti-gambling law to impose harsher penalties on operators of illegal dens might be another way to ease the problem. For example, those involved in the business could be discouraged if the law required seizure of their earnings. On the gamblers’ part, if their habit is regarded as an addiction, they should be compelled to undergo rehabilitation treatment after being arrested.