KUALA LUMPUR (June 5): Thailand could pass casino legislation by early 2025, according to gaming industry magazine Inside Asian Gaming (IAG).

Citing industry veteran Daniel Cheng, who authored The Rainbow Upopo, Japan Casino Uprising and How I Built an Integrated Resort, in a report on Tuesday, IAG said whether the quality of that regulation is enough to attract significant international investment remains to be seen.

The magazine reported that speaking on a panel at the G2E Asia conference in Macau on Tuesday, Cheng revealed that the Thai government is wasting no time in pushing forward with legalised casinos, even as the Ministry of Finance continues to work on formalising the recommendations contained within a House committee report on the matter.

“We are hearing that the legislation could happen as soon as early next year, because as far as the existing government is concerned — and it’s something I don’t really agree with — they would like to see the fruits of this legislation, and the opening of the first Thai resorts while they are still in government,” Cheng was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, IAG also quoted Seaport Research Partners senior analyst Vitaly Umansky as saying many governments look at the development of the casino industry in Macau and Singapore, and their first attempt is to replicate one of the two.

“I think the difficulty of approaching legalisation and development in that fashion is that both Macau and Singapore are entirely unique geographic and political constructs that are very difficult to replicate in most other countries around Asia and the rest of the world.

“To have the wherewithal to actually create an industry of scale, meaning the ability to bring in foreign investment of large enough scale, where they actually wind up building multibillion-dollar properties and have a well regulated environment...the biggest problem is going to be on the regulatory front. Even more importantly, it’s going to be on the political risk front, because to go to a public company, an international casino operator and developer, and ask them to invest US$4 billion (RM18.79 billion) or US$5 billion in a country that is politically at risk of having bad things happen — government changes and political unrest — I think it’s a very big ask,” said Umansky.