Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin used his first monthly television address because the country’s leader to advertise plans to legalize casinos and construct a nuclear power plant to curb illegal gambling and cut electricity costs.
The casinos would bring gambling firms under government control, and the nuclear power plant would ease public opposition to high energy bills by lowering the associated fee of generating electricity, Srettha said in a taped television broadcast.
“We have to acknowledge that underground gambling is a serious problem and should be addressed through legalization,” Srettha said. “Nuclear power will need time to educate people because most people don’t want a plant in their area.”
In March, a majority of the 500-seat House of Representatives backed a study by a panel of lawmakers that advocated for legalized casinos to be arrange in large entertainment venues to draw big-spending tourists. The government estimates that the integrated entertainment complexes will help generate total tax revenue of 12 billion baht ($327 million) of their first yr of operation.
The ministry gathered views from 16 related agencies, all of which agreed that casino complexes would boost the country’s economic growth, he told the media on June 19.
While most betting is against the law in Thailand – a majority-Buddhist society – the opening of casinos will probably be according to the recent adoption of a more liberal approach to revive the tourism industry after the pandemic.
Nuclear power would also help Thailand achieve zero carbon emissions, Srettha said last month.
