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February 6, 2025

Thailand Seeks Comments on Draft Amendment to Permit Online Gambling

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The Thai government has proposed amendments to the Gambling Act B.E. 2478 (1935), aiming to address the growing influence of online gambling activities and strengthen regulatory oversight. These amendments, if enacted, would introduce significant changes, particularly concerning online gambling operators, participants, and related advertising activities.

The draft amendment is currently in the public hearing process, which is scheduled to conclude on February 14, 2025.

Key highlights of the proposed amendments are discussed below.

Online Gambling

In the proposed amendment, “online gambling” refers to gambling via a computer system or electronic system either through the internet or through remote communication. Organizing, participating in, or engaging in any type of online gambling is prohibited unless authorized by the competent authority.

This opens the door for the authorization of casino-style online gambling in Thailand. However, the proposed amendment also imposes strict penalties on both operators and gamblers engaging in unauthorized online gambling:

  • Anyone who organizes unauthorized online gambling is subject to imprisonment for 7–12 years. This penalty also applies to those responsible for managing electronic systems or tools used to facilitate gambling, as well as anyone involved in advertising, promoting, or deceiving others, either directly or indirectly, to engage in online gambling without proper authorization.
  • Any person who engages in unauthorized online gambling is subject to imprisonment for 1–3 years.
  • Dealers, supervisors of gambling or gambling activities, runners conveying wagers or other betting information, and owners of premises who knowingly permit such unauthorized activities are subject to imprisonment for 5–7 years.

Penalties for Unauthorized Offline Gambling Operators

The proposed amendment revokes the previous penalties under the Gambling Act and proposes stronger penalties. Both the original penalties and the proposed replacements depend on the type of gambling activity under the law, which classifies gambling activities into two types—list A and list B. List A includes many gambling types that are less common, while some of the gambling activities under list B are mahjong, dominoes, card games, lotteries, raffles or any games of luck promising money or other benefits to any players, bingo, and casino-like machine games. Finally, all gambling activities other than those mentioned under lists A and B are referred to in a separate section (called “section 4 bis”).

The proposed amendment stipulates that anyone who organizes gambling, devises gambling schemes, advertises, promotes, or directly or indirectly entices others to engage in gambling that has not been authorized by the competent authority, or that has been authorized but involves modifications that violate the Gambling Act, ministerial regulations, or license conditions, is subject to the following penalties:

  • Imprisonment for 5–10 years if the offense involves gambling under list A or lotteries, or gambling of a similar nature.
  • Imprisonment for 5–7 years if the offense involves gambling under list B (other than lotteries) or gambling covered under section 4 bis.

The amendments are currently in draft form and are subject to further revision during the legislative process.

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