HHAD
26 June 09
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WEEKLY
ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE FOR THE EXPAT IN ALL OF US What’s happening, and might be happening, in Hua Hin
Fancy a flutter? Government mulls online lottery
bangkok, thailand In another slow news week for Hua Hin the possible relaxing of Thailand’s gambling laws to allow an online lottery caught AWOL’s attention, as the authorities effectively admit in doing so that there is a big problem with ‘underground’ gambling. During the Thaksin years a story that repeatedly came to the fore were his plans to allow casinos in Thailand, although at that time it seemed that the majority were against the idea. Despite the potential tax revenue that could be generated, many Thais felt that it would undermine the core Buddhist values the country is famous for. The same arguments are being raised now, but this time it appears as though there is a shift in the Thai attitude; perhaps because the bi-monthly lottery with paper tickets is so well established now. There have been lotteries in Thailand since the beginning of the last century, but these were mostly one off affairs to generate revenue
carried out by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University and found a majority of people, or 60.24 per cent, support the online lottery, reasoning that it would generate income for the state to use in developing the country and solve the problem of the underground lottery. However, 34.94 per cent of the respondents oppose it, saying that Gambling is a monkey on selling tickets electronically would the back of many Thais only encourage gambling, raise for specific projects or events. It is questions about transparency in only in the last twenty years or so the government and would be that they have become a regular against Thailand’s image of being fixture. Continued on page 2 In what may seem a bizarre contradiction to some who oppose gambling, many Thais will visit their local temple and shake a Khao Takiab section pot of numbered sticks to obtain their lottery numbers, after having The stig revealed carried out their normal Buddhist practices. Dear mary Two opinion polls were carried out last week which showed both the Sudoku puzzles unreliability of opinion polls as well as the split opinion on the issue of Michael owen shock the online lottery. The first was
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