Is Pattaya ready for a Casino?
I was reading the online Pattaya newspaper and saw an article that caught my attention. The Mayor is thinking about building a casino in Pattaya. Personally I think this is a BAD idea. What do you guys think?
http://www.pattayacitynews.net/news_06_03_51.html
"I get enough exercise JUMPING to conclusions, PUSHING my luck and RUNNING my mouth off."
They just announced last week that they are going to legalise gambling. That will come as a big disappointment to the Police as they pocked all the money every time they 'bust' a card school in somebody's house.Originally Posted by CharlzManson
Good or bad I don't know. Thais love to gamble anyway and I guess only the wealthy will go.
I hate gambling so I don't care.
Rocky...The voice of the common Man
I’m no fan of gambling but it is those with less to lose (but all they have) who will suffer. Can’t see it benefiting anyone but politicians and casino owners.
“The Peoples Choice” ! Just Like Robert Mugabe
I think it'll add a new dimension to Pattaya. I'm not a big time gambler, but I'll make the odd trip to the casino for an alternate entertainment venue.
This will allow police to concentrate more on other things like the increasing rate of violent crime against tourists.
It will also create more jobs for local Thais.
And who knows, it might even increase the "stunner" population of Pattaya.
One thing is of no doubt. If there is a casino, it'll be a very popular place.
"What kind of erection, sir?"
"A rip-roaring hard on, ma'am. It was a rip-roaring one."
Good lord....
If you think there were a lot of Chinese tourist before, wait until the casinos get built....
Chinese people LOVE to gamble. Despite the fact that Vegas draws high rollers from all over the world, Macau recently passed it in terms of total $$$$ spent on gaming, and it's because Chinese people LOVE to gamble.
It ain't going to be just the wealthy either. Plenty of degenerate low-lifes will be setting up games to appeal to all price ranges. The net result will initially be very ugly, and then a lot more upscale. The end result - many more Chinese tourists.
I remember the very first time I came to Thailand the media was saying that a casino might be built. Since then the subject comes up every 3 or 4 years, and nothing ever happens.
I am a gambler and I very much hope casinos never arrive in LOS.
Asian casinos are very different from Vegas syle casinos, or even from the smaller versions found in Europe. Don't expect any freebies or discounts. Don't expect any additional entertainment. Don't expect poker. Don't expect any good restaurants. Don't expect dealers who have enough personality to joke with the punters.
Do expect table after table offering exactly the same boring game, Baccarat.
If there was a legal casino in Pattaya it would have a huge negative impact on the local people, especially bar girls. The world has never produced a more pathetic or compulsive breed of gambler than Isarn hookers.
12 years ago the police turned a blind eye while slot machines were placed around the town. Within weeks they had to be removed because everyday queues of addicted lower class Thais formed around each machine. A beer bar owner I knew told me that the machine in his bar was making 300,000 baht a month, all in 10 baht coins.
Of Limbo be careful, of Hades beware, just no searching for Heaven, you're already there.
I think it would improve the "quality" of tourists in Pattaya, affluent tourists tend to visit Casinos whether they be Chinese or Westerners.
The downside is that if more wealthy guys are attracted to the resort the girls will soon put up their prices accordingly, 1000 baht overnighters would be a thing of the past.
One easy solution to stop the locals losing money they can't afford, make the Casinos membership only where a foreign passport must be produced for membership.
I am confident that Casinos will come to Thailand sooner or later.
You might want to check out some of the new casinos in Macau built by the Vegas conglomerates like Sands. They're bringing the Vegas concept, complete with shows and restaurants, to Asia. I'm not sure how successful it'll be, but they're certainly changing directions.
I agree, and I pray to a God I don't even believe it that this doesn't happen. I go to Thailand specifically to get away from the Chinese, the last thing I want is groups of loud, spitting, low hygiene mainland Chinese men invading Thailand.
Jimmy, I understand where you are coming from about casinos improving the quality of tourists, but believe me a large group of mainland Chinese does anything but improve the quality, spit buckets on the casino tables anyone?
Arris, forget about what's happening in Macau for a minute, we're talking about what a casino would be like in Pattaya. It would undoubtably be a copy of the type of casino found around Thailand's borders and in other asian country's such as Malaysia and Cambodia.
Workers inside the casino would be paid minimum wage for their respective jobs and would work in fear of everybody, the bosses and the customers.
If anybody over 18 or 21 is allowed inside to gamble then Pattaya will have to pay a huge social price, with no safety net such as Gamcare to advise anyone with a gambling problem.
A few years ago I was in a local go-go bar and it happened to be the day before the monthly salaries were paid. The owner of the place told me he didn't have enough money to pay everybody but he had an idea that had worked for him before. Without saying anything to anybody else he laid out 2 joined together pieces of white A4 on the table infront of him. Writing with a felt-tip pen he divided the paper into three parts. The first section was marked LOW, the second was marked 7 and the third was marked HIGH.
"I don't have to do anything more" the bar owner told me, "they will come to me, just sit and watch"
Sure enough after a few seconds some of the bargirls not dancing on stage nervously approached our table, like vampires peeping out of the darkness to see if the sun had already set.
"There's a game of Hi-Lo going on here if anyone wants to play" announced the bar owner as he pulled two dice and a cup from his pocket. Then he whispered to me to get the game started by placing 20 baht wherever I liked on the layout.
As soon as the bargirls saw I'd made a bet they huddled around us and each of them began pulling rolls of 20 baht and 100 baht notes from their bras, panties and shoes.
The return for a successful bet on low (2,3,4,5,6) was even money, as was the return for high (8,9,10,11,12). A correct bet on the exact total of the two dice being 7 paid 4/1.
Within half an hour almost all of the staff in the bar had stopped working and was crowded around the game. Little bundles of notes were produced from every nook and cranny imaginable. Of course with the odds so heavily stacked against them they all lost whatever cash they had.
At that point I left the bar. I later found out that the game went on through the night with the gambling escalating as the girls bet the wages the were owed, and then later, as they lost more, their wages in advance for future months.
The problem for the bar owner was that his plan had worked too well because the girls from his go-go were so demotivated the following day that almost none of them showed up for work. His Thai wife had to rally the troops by phoning around to tell the staff that none of them would have to work in the bar to pay off any gambling debts. The slate would be wiped clean, nobody owed anybody anything. In other words the owner got out of paying the salaries but didn't lose his business.
Put a casino in Pattaya and within a few months happy, friendly bargirls would go from being an endangered species to being totally extinct
Of Limbo be careful, of Hades beware, just no searching for Heaven, you're already there.
That is so true about the girls Shag.
I was in a bar on Bangla Road one day and saw a farang playing the dice game with a bargirl. She insisted on playing for 100 baht a pop and within an hour was 1200 baht down and kept chasing and chasing.
Eventually he wanted to leave and asked for his money. She had to loan it off the owner of the bar and had a face like thunder.
I asked him if he was really going to take her money, to which his reply was of course as they would fuck him over for his last baht if they could.
Not gonna happen. This would effectively shut the door on any man with a Thai woman in tow.
However, they can discourage Thai women from showing up without a foreign boyfriend/husband by simply making the minimum bet 100 baht.
"What kind of erection, sir?"
"A rip-roaring hard on, ma'am. It was a rip-roaring one."
Oh, I agree. Without a strong gaming regulator like the Nevada Gaming Commission and enough high end traffic to create the billion-dollar resorts, it's definitely going to be a dirty and dingy business.
I'm just saying that the archtypical Asian casino is starting to change, as seen in the most recent developments in Macau. Once you get rid of the local monopoly, big money attracts the high end operators like LV Sands and the MGM Mirage group. I don't know if the formula will work in Macau, but they're certainly trying it.
But I'm definitely against introducing legalized gambling into Pattaya. Enough sinning around here without adding Greed.
They could easily get around that one, have a rule whereby Thai women would be allowed to enter the Casino as a guest of a foreign passport holder.
having worked as a betting shop manager in the UK, Ive gotten used to seeing low paid chinese waiters ($10 an hour if lucky) come in before lunch, and dinner to blow all their money. They are SO compulsive, they just love to gamble. If their horse isn't running, they just pick another, and they will think nothing of blowing a months wadges in an afternoon.
They really, do seem to be 'extreme' gamblers. I've met a few thais and they seem to be the same, just a bit more polite.
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