'Should legalizing gambling and police reform go hand in hand?'
If gambling (and drugs) were legalised, there would be no need to reform the police; this/these are the mainsprings of corruption within their ranks.
The alternative is to buy land with the money you dare not put in the bank (in your own name). How else to explain the myriad of building plots springing up all over Pattaya?
Sounds like a refreshing change from the new PM; denying junket membership to the many. Now if he can just persuade them to work instead of enjoying the hospitality of others, he'll get my vote ...oh!
Merit in the RTP is gained by bribes; either for a higher position or to keep sweet those higher up. The questionable tactics are practised on the public and honed to perfection within the station. My S-i-L was demoted from using a police car back to a motorbike for not contributing enough upwards.
I didn't phrase it well enough; every one knows that the RTP is riddled with crooks. My point is that only rarely have these crooks been identified until just recently. Of course identifying them and punishing them are two different things.
Besides brake pads, brake lights on cars and motor bikes and all auto lights must be the most expensive in the World. Ordinary folk don't seem able to afford them.
SERVE AND PROTECT
I expect every single member of Pattaya's invisible police force to walk the length of 3rd Road touching lampposts. It will six months for them both to make this journey.