3,000 Thai Casino Staff Could Lose Jobs

[george]

3,000 Thai casino staff could lose jobs

About 3,000 Thai staff of casinos in Poipet opposite Aranyaprathet may lose their jobs as a result of strict measures to discourage gamblers from leaving the country during the New Year holiday.

The number of gamblers crossing the border to visit casinos in Poipet, Cambodia, dropped by about 80% on Dec 31 and the situation remained the same yesterday.

Pol Lt-Col Thassawat Boonyawat, deputy chief of the immigration checkpoint at Aranyaprathet, said the government did not want people crossing the border to gamble at casinos in neighbouring countries.

Immigration police had taken strict measures to check travellers, causing them inconvenience.

Tourists, merchants, gamblers and Thai staff at the casinos were required to have their passports checked. The process took about two hours and put many gamblers off.

Casino staff in Poipet arrived late to work, and operators at the nine casinos threatened to lay them off.

A Malaysian executive of a casino in Poipet, who identified himself only as Peter, said operators had discussed the possibility of replacing Thai staff with Cambodians.

Pol Lt-Col Thassawat said 3,523 travellers including 2,789 Thais went to Poipet via Aranyaprathet checkpoint. Of the Thais, only about 1,000 were gamblers. Usually about 5,000 gamblers visited Poipet casinos during the holidays. The drop was more than 80%, he said.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra says government officials found to have crossed the border to gamble at casinos could be dismissed.

Pol Maj-Gen Pongsaphat Pongcharoen, deputy chief of the Immigration Police Bureau, visited Aranyaprathet district in Sa Kaeo on Tuesday.

Video cameras at border checkpoints record tourists going through immigration. They have to show their identity cards and the money they are carrying. The number of travellers heading for the casinos had dropped yesterday, with less than half the usual number of Thais crossing the border to Poipet on holiday.

--Bangkok Post 2004-01-02

[george]

Follow up:

Thai gamblers shy away Cambodian casinos amid immigration clampdown

BANGKOK, : Thai gamblers who normally flock to casinos across the border in Cambodia have stayed away in droves after strict immigration procedures were put in place to deter them.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra warned civil servants this week they faced dismissal if caught gambling at the casinos during the new year break, while immigration police said they would carefully monitor departing Thais.

"Based on statistics over the past two days there was about an 80 percent drop in Thai gamblers" crossing into Cambodia, deputy commander at Thailand's Aranyaprathet checkpoint Lieutenant Colonel Tassawat Boonyawat told AFP.

"I think it's because of strict immigration procedures and partly because no government employee dares to go," he said, adding that numbers heading to the casinos at Cambodia's Poi Pet were down from about 5,000 to 1,000.

Intensified checks had created two-hour delays at the border crossing according to local reports, which also quoted a casino executive warning that 3,000 Thai workers at the casinos may be laid off as a result.

Tassawat however rejected the reports.

"It's likely that they (casino operators) just want to put pressure on us to relax the travel measures so more gamblers can easily get to their casinos," he said.

Most forms of gambling are illegal in Thailand, but an estimated half a million people travel to casinos strategically located near the Thai border in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

- AFP 2004-01-02

[george]

BORDER SECURITY: Cambodians crack down on Thais

Travellers bear brunt as irate officials retaliate for anti-gambling policy

Immigration officials yesterday warned that their counterparts in Cambodia had increased security measures for Thai travellers and were not above arresting them on false drug charges.

The Cambodians stepped up security measures in retaliation for measures by Thai immigration officers to make it harder for gamblers to cross the border, said Police Lt-Colonel Suraphan Surakkhaka, from Kabchoeng border checkpoint.

Many Thais have been arrested, he said, and Cambodian officials may consider planting drugs on Thais so they can bring false smuggling charges against them.

Thai immigration officials recently stepped up security measures aimed at Thais travelling to casinos across the Cambodian border in line with a government crackdown on the practice.

In response to this, Cambodia retaliated by enforcing strict measures against visiting Thais.

"If brawls occur between Cambodians and Thais across the border, Thais will be at a disadvantage," Suraphan said.

There are two casinos in O' Samach, a Cambodian town over the border from Surin's Kabchoeng district, and nine in Poipet, over the border from Sa Kaew's Aranyaprathet district.

Sources from O' Samach's Royal Hill casino said the owner had fired its Thai manager, Jittichote Churattanaphakdee, and three other Thai staff members.

Several employees at the casino said the management had become strict about the punctuality of the Thai staff since the security clampdown by immigration officials.

One Thai employee, who identified himself as Saroj, said only 30 per cent of the casino's slot machines were in use because of the lack of customers. He said management might eventually fire all the Thai workers.

Lt-General Jongrak Juthanon, commissioner of Provincial Police Bureau 2, which is in charge of provinces along the Cambodian border, said he did not believe the Cambodian casinos would resort to such drastic action.

Jongrak said the casinos knew that most of their customers were Thais and they needed Thai employees to communicate with them.

"If there are no Thai workers, Thais may not go there to gamble," Jongrak said.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the problem of underground gambling dens would disappear if the government legalised casinos.

"Illegal gambling would automatically decrease after such complexes were opened. This has happened in several countries," Thaksin said.

"Don't say that we are a Buddhist country and cannot have casinos."

Thaksin said the government could not prevent people from gambling because the penalties were so light. He said the government should do something to get rid of underground dens which paid bribes to the police and protection money to the mafia.

--The Nation- 2004-01-03

[the gentleman]

Meanwhile Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the problem of underground gambling dens would disappear if the government legalised casinos.

"Illegal gambling would automatically decrease after such complexes were opened. This has happened in several countries," Thaksin said

I wonder who the owner who will be of the first Thai Casino!?!?!

[george]

Update:

Soldier held for carrying B1.72 million

CHIANG RAI: An army sergeant has been charged with trying to smuggle 1.72 million baht in cash out of the country via the Mae Sai border district.

Staff Sergeant Chavalit Nareerat, 38, of Chiang Rai's provincial army district, was arrested on Friday for allegedly trying to smuggle out 1.7 million baht to Burma's Tachilek province opposite Mae Sai.

Anti-Money Laundering Office secretary-general Pol Maj-Gen Peeraphan Prempooti ordered an investigation to find the source of the money.

The government is trying hard to discourage Thais, especially state officials, from visiting casinos in neighbouring countries during the New Year holiday.

People wanting to cross the border into Burma from Mae Sai and Chiang Saen districts are subject to a body search.

Those found to be carrying too much money are also subject to questioning by immigration and crime suppression police, customs officers, and officials from the Anti-Money Laundering Office stationed at the two checkpoints.

Pol Maj-Gen Pongsaphat Pongcharoen, deputy chief of the immigration police, said people wanting to cross the border were being subject to tight screening at all checkpoints, in line with the government's policy to prevent Thais from visiting casinos in neighbouring countries during the New Year holiday.

The restrictions had led to a decline of nearly 50% in the number of Thais crossing into Cambodia through the Aranyaprathet border checkpoint, compared to the same period last year. Only 6,298 Thais passed through the checkpoint between Dec 31-Jan 1, he said.

Cross-border travellers must show their ID cards and passports at the border checkpoints. Information on the frequency of their cross-border travels and the amount of money they carried on each trip was also being recorded.

Concerning threats from casino operators in Poipet to lay off their Thai employees who arrived late for work because of the strict checkpoint screening, Pol Maj-Gen Pongsaphat advised the employees to try to arrive at the checkpoint as early as 7am.

--Bangkok Post 2004-01-04