Attracting top casino operators
But if Suretta wants to open any entertainment venues during his term, he will need to look outside Bangkok.
More realistic pilot projects would be Chiang Mai in the north, or Rayong, about a 50-minute drive from Pattaya on the east coast. The redevelopment of Khlong Toei is expected to take more than a decade, mirroring the long timeline it took to get Marina Bay off the ground.
Still, even with the later development timeline, the Khlong Toei license could be up for bid first. Thailand may adopt Singapore's approach of bidding from most attractive to least attractive.
This would ensure that each license would attract a strong pool of bidders, maximizing competition and value, something Japan sorely overlooked. Without clear guidelines, Japan's prefectures scrambled to plan and schedule their selection process, unintentionally pitting prefectures against each other in the quest to attract casino operators.
So far, public opposition to legalizing casino gambling has been relatively muted, and following the Singapore model, Thailand is considering introducing similar social safeguards, such as charging Thai citizens an entrance fee and limiting casino space to 5 percent of the resort's total area.
Skepticism remains among investors about whether Thailand can establish and enforce a strong regulatory framework, which is essential to attract top U.S. casino resort operators who are bound by regulatory requirements to only invest in jurisdictions with strict regulatory and compliance standards.
But what is clear is that the political will exists within each party to make it happen.
