{"id":11247,"date":"2025-10-27T07:45:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T07:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/?p=11247"},"modified":"2025-10-27T07:45:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T07:45:36","slug":"thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/","title":{"rendered":"Thai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thailand\u2019s new Prime Minister, Anutin Chanvirakul<\/strong>, has reaffirmed his negative stance on gambling. Last week, he revoked a July decision that had recognized poker as a sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chanvirakul has been a consistent critic of the previous government\u2019s plans to legalize land-based casinos in the country. On October 22<\/strong>, he signed an executive order canceling permits for poker tournaments and traditional Thai card games known as \u201cPai Phae.\u201d <\/strong>This effectively extinguished even faint hopes for the revival of the integrated resorts bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July<\/strong>, an order from the Ministry of Interior lifted the 1958 ban<\/strong> on poker tournaments, allowing the game to be recognized as a sport under the supervision of the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT)<\/strong>. This move was aimed at promoting tourism by hosting poker events such as the World Poker Tour exhibition<\/strong> held in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Chanvirakul was damning of the previous decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told the media after the signing: \u201cWe will not promote any form of gambling. Our focus remains on ethical growth, tourism that benefits all, and policies aligned with national welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the government\u2019s actions to limit legal gambling, the illegal gambling market<\/strong> remains a serious problem for the authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, the Pattaya Mail<\/em> reported that Chaichanok Chidchob<\/strong>, Minister of Digital Economy and Society, had been offered a 40 million baht bribe<\/strong> (around \u00a3910,000<\/strong>) to halt enforcement against online gambling and money laundering operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, various government agencies reported over 100 arrests<\/strong> connected to illegal gambling activities, which are believed to generate more than 17 billion baht<\/strong> (around \u00a3387 million<\/strong>) annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is estimated that more than 34.5 million Thais<\/strong> participate in gambling – both illegally and through the legal state lottery. The illegal sector is valued at approximately 1.1 trillion baht<\/strong> (around \u00a322.8 billion<\/strong>) per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Chanvirakul rejects the idea of using gambling as a tool for economic growth, the scale of the black market indicates that the government is missing out on significant tax revenues. Some industry representatives believe this factor will eventually become too large to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t forget to subscribe to our Telegram channel<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thailand\u2019s new Prime Minister, Anutin Chanvirakul, has reaffirmed his negative stance on gambling. Last week, he revoked a July decision that had recognized poker as a sport. Chanvirakul has been a consistent critic of the previous government\u2019s plans to legalize land-based casinos in the country. On October 22, he signed an executive order canceling permits […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1,24],"tags":[13812,158,46,14391,1023,8589,8399],"class_list":["post-11247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gambling","category-news","category-regulations","tag-anutin-chanvirakul","tag-ban","tag-gambling","tag-pai-phae","tag-poker","tag-thailand","tag-world-poker-tour"],"yoast_head":"\nThai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling - SBC EURASIA EN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thailand\u2019s new Prime Minister, Anutin Chanvirakul, has reaffirmed his negative stance on gambling. Last week, he revoked a July decision that had recognized poker as a sport.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling - SBC EURASIA EN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thailand\u2019s new Prime Minister, Anutin Chanvirakul, has reaffirmed his negative stance on gambling. Last week, he revoked a July decision that had recognized poker as a sport.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SBC EURASIA EN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-27T07:45:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-27T07:45:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/resourcesen.sbceurasia.com\/sbccisen\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Why-all-is-not-lost-for-Thailand-gambling.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nika rostiashvili\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"nika rostiashvili\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"nika rostiashvili\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fe6263b3d6331caebf299a540ebfbdb0\"},\"headline\":\"Thai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-27T07:45:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-27T07:45:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/\"},\"wordCount\":349,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/resourcesen.sbceurasia.com\/sbccisen\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Why-all-is-not-lost-for-Thailand-gambling.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Anutin Chanvirakul\",\"ban\",\"gambling\",\"Pai Phae\",\"poker\",\"Thailand\",\"World Poker Tour\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Gambling\",\"News\",\"Regulations\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/\",\"name\":\"Thai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling - SBC EURASIA EN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/resourcesen.sbceurasia.com\/sbccisen\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Why-all-is-not-lost-for-Thailand-gambling.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-27T07:45:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-27T07:45:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fe6263b3d6331caebf299a540ebfbdb0\"},\"description\":\"Thailand\u2019s new Prime Minister, Anutin Chanvirakul, has reaffirmed his negative stance on gambling. Last week, he revoked a July decision that had recognized poker as a sport.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/resourcesen.sbceurasia.com\/sbccisen\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Why-all-is-not-lost-for-Thailand-gambling.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/resourcesen.sbceurasia.com\/sbccisen\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Why-all-is-not-lost-for-Thailand-gambling.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"SBC EURASIA EN\",\"description\":\"SBC EURASIA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fe6263b3d6331caebf299a540ebfbdb0\",\"name\":\"nika rostiashvili\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a6fc38973002f762373f92f910cfe28498ceddc953e76061e3ae8b8afd9144b4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a6fc38973002f762373f92f910cfe28498ceddc953e76061e3ae8b8afd9144b4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"nika rostiashvili\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/author\/nika\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling - SBC EURASIA EN","description":"Thailand\u2019s new Prime Minister, Anutin Chanvirakul, has reaffirmed his negative stance on gambling. Last week, he revoked a July decision that had recognized poker as a sport.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling - SBC EURASIA EN","og_description":"Thailand\u2019s new Prime Minister, Anutin Chanvirakul, has reaffirmed his negative stance on gambling. Last week, he revoked a July decision that had recognized poker as a sport.","og_url":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/","og_site_name":"SBC EURASIA EN","article_published_time":"2025-10-27T07:45:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-27T07:45:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/resourcesen.sbceurasia.com\/sbccisen\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Why-all-is-not-lost-for-Thailand-gambling.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"nika rostiashvili","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"nika rostiashvili","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/"},"author":{"name":"nika rostiashvili","@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fe6263b3d6331caebf299a540ebfbdb0"},"headline":"Thai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling","datePublished":"2025-10-27T07:45:33+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-27T07:45:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/"},"wordCount":349,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/resourcesen.sbceurasia.com\/sbccisen\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Why-all-is-not-lost-for-Thailand-gambling.jpg","keywords":["Anutin Chanvirakul","ban","gambling","Pai Phae","poker","Thailand","World Poker Tour"],"articleSection":["Gambling","News","Regulations"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/","url":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/","name":"Thai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling - SBC EURASIA EN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/resourcesen.sbceurasia.com\/sbccisen\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Why-all-is-not-lost-for-Thailand-gambling.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-27T07:45:33+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-27T07:45:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fe6263b3d6331caebf299a540ebfbdb0"},"description":"Thailand\u2019s new Prime Minister, Anutin Chanvirakul, has reaffirmed his negative stance on gambling. Last week, he revoked a July decision that had recognized poker as a sport.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/resourcesen.sbceurasia.com\/sbccisen\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Why-all-is-not-lost-for-Thailand-gambling.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/resourcesen.sbceurasia.com\/sbccisen\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Why-all-is-not-lost-for-Thailand-gambling.jpg","width":1000,"height":667},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2025\/10\/27\/thai-prime-minister-steps-up-fight-against-gambling\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thai Prime Minister Steps Up Fight Against Gambling"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/","name":"SBC EURASIA EN","description":"SBC EURASIA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fe6263b3d6331caebf299a540ebfbdb0","name":"nika rostiashvili","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a6fc38973002f762373f92f910cfe28498ceddc953e76061e3ae8b8afd9144b4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a6fc38973002f762373f92f910cfe28498ceddc953e76061e3ae8b8afd9144b4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"nika rostiashvili"},"url":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/author\/nika\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11248,"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11247\/revisions\/11248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}