Bar Closing Midnight From 1st March

[wowpow]

CABINET DECISION: Anger over midnight closing time

Full story

BANGKOK: The Cabinet yesterday endorsed a new regulation for a midnight closing time for most entertainment venues, while allowing nightspots in designated zones to stay open two hours longer.

After a brief discussion on the proposed regulation, the Cabinet agreed to an earlier decision by a government committee which called for different closing hours for nightspots in different zones, Deputy Interior Minister Pracha Maleenont told reporters yesterday.

Owners of night entertainment venues yesterday denounced the decision, labelling it a death sentence for businesses and bad news for tourism.

Deputy Prime Minister Purachai Piumsombun’s committee in charge of combating vice at entertainment venues proposed the different closing times on Friday. The new closing times come into effect on March 1.

All entertainment venues outside the designated areas, including food shops selling liquor and music, will now have to close at midnight instead of the current 2am.

In the designated zones, nightclubs and bars can stay open until 2am, while pubs and discotheques are required to close at 1am.

Shops selling khao tom (rice porridge) can stay open all night as they are not covered by the new law, Pracha said.

However, the shops must comply with relevant laws, such as the smoking ban at all food outlets.

In Bangkok, the zones designated for entertainment venues cover the Patpong area and New Phetchaburi and Ratchadaphisek Roads. The Interior Ministry regulation will be imposed under the Entertainment Venue Act, which came into effect early last month but sets no specific hours for entertainment venues.

Pracha voiced concern, however, that entertainmentvenue operators could take legal action against the Cabinet for breach of their constitutional rights.

But Purachai told the Cabinet he had no such worry, he said.

The deputy interior minister said that personally he believed the same service hours should be applied to all night entertainment venues to allow easier supervision and enforcement for authorities. But the ministry was ready to follow the decision.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told the Cabinet yesterday that efficiency of enforcement rather than a possible violation of the Charter should be the main concern, the source said.

Somyos Suthangkoon, who heads an association of entertainmentvenue operators, said the early closing time would have a severe impact on most nightspots.

Allowing nightclubs and bars to stay open for only three hours a day was “strange”, compared to eight hours for massage parlours. “Everybody knows massage parlours is the front for what,” Somyos added.

Praphan Pumchaosuan, leader of entertainmentplace owners in the Patpong area, said yesterday that shorter service hours would drive away foreign tourists.

The new regulation will take effect in all provinces, except Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Samut Prakan and Uttaradit, where the zones for entertainment places have yet to be designated, deputy government spokeswoman Sansanee Nakapong said yesterday. In the four provinces, the current opening hours will be retained.

Praphan Pumchaosuan, leader of bar owners in Patpong, said yesterday shorter service hours would drive away foreign tourists.

The new rules will take effect nationwide, except in Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Samut Prakan and Uttaradit, where entertainment zones have yet to be designated.

-- The Nation 2004-02-10

[huski]

Shops selling khao tom (rice porridge) can stay open all night as they are not covered by the new law, Pracha said.

gotta feed those hungry bar girls after they meet their quota

[LPCustom69]

Nothing in Thailand surprises me anymore. Maybe this will make everyone forget about Avian flu, and the lies that followed. Or the fact that Sars is once again in China. Tourists and their money will always find somewhere to go.

[steffi]

Shops selling khao tom (rice porridge) can stay open all night as they are not covered by the new law, Pracha said.

gotta feed those hungry bar girls after they meet their quota

No! More like several cabinet members own their own Khao Tom shops.

[JemJem]

After the postponement of the final decision last month, most of us had thought that the current hours won't be changed...alas, we were wrong.

Some questions though :

1. OPENING hours have NOT been changed, have they ? There had been talk of having all the venues to open at 6 pm, instead of 1 pm.

2. How about 'restaurant' type of places (those with no music) outside the zones ? As we know, there are so many of those, most of them outdoors. I hope at least they will be permitted to stay open till 2 am.

3. Snooker clubs ?

4. There has been no change to the hours for selling/serving alcohol, right ? I mean one can still get beer from 7-11 after midnight or one can still get beer at a restaurant after midnight, right ? I am asking this because somewhere I read about someone going to a 7-11 and being told that he cannot purchase beer, as it is past midnight.

Assuming the opening hours have not been changed, I feel that the owners will have their venues (yes, even the dance clubs) open at a much earlier hour. But for instance, how many customers will feel like going to a danceclub around, say, 7 or even 8 pm ?

For drinkers and bar/pub-goers, they will simply start drinking 1-2 hours earlier. Of course for people who work, till, say, 6-6.30 pm, they might have to start immediately after work !

Whatever the answers to the above questions are, the 'easy-going' and 'fun' atmosphere of the nightlife will certainly be ruined. Sad

Regards,

Jem

[digibum]

Of course for people who work, till, say, 6-6.30 pm, they might have to start immediately after work !

Why wait until *after* work? :-)

The thing that I think would concern me is that this sort of thing encourages power drinking. I'm an American (where bars close at 2am) and used to travel quite frequently to London (where pubs close at 11pm) for business. I couldn't help but notice how many people were drinking for effect. They were power slamming drinks so they could get good and drunk before the 11pm cutoff which usually resulted in lots of vomitting and passed out passengers on the last train of the evening. Hey, not knocking my British friends but I just think that people try to consume the same amount of alcohol but they have less time in which to do it so it leads to a lot more binge drinking which leads to more drunkeness.

This seems to be totally the oppostite of what the law/rule is supposed to accomplish. Instead of cleaning things up you'll end up with far more drunken and rowdy behavior except it will be concentrated into a much shorter time period.

[grimreaper]

Message to entertainment venue owners:-

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS? IT TOLLS FOR THEE.

Thaksin's efforts to kill the vice trade will only result in more businesses closing down, more unemployment and less tourism as tourists will go elsewhere for their excitement. Higher unemployment will only lead to more poverty and higher crime rates.

As for the working girls? They will always find somewhere else to go to "ply their trade". They can start by using my hotel room when I come to Thailand later this month.

Will there be any positive effects of all these changes? Yes. Once the economic impact has been felt, the pendulum will swing the other way. Yes, it will take time but meanwhile the girls will be accepting a lot less money for their services and will lose some of the attitude they have adopted lately.

For whom the bell tolls? THAKSIN, IT TOLLS FOR THEE.

[mrvietnam2001]

I lived half my life in Ft Lauderdale. Waaaay back when, it was a party town, alcohol, coke, etc etc etc etc ( hey we used to run pot up ocean drive in un-covered pick up trucks in 1978!)

Soon after hurrican andrew wiped out the beach, which was also a time when we crazies got older and decided to stay in paradise, a decision was made to invest over a billion dollars in beach reconstruction.

Obviously we didn't do that for the party crowd. We did it for ourselves and to attract a higher calibre of visitor.

We enacted an "open container" law and the police actually arrested people on the beach with an open container of beer or anything alcohol related. Major drug busts which had been going on since the beginning started taking on a very high visibilty.

The college crowd whined. The cubanos and colombian tough guys were for the most part driven out of the area and underground.

Ft Lauderdale has become a very well to do international location and is beautiful, clean, and upscale as a result of a lot of these actions.

Thailand COULD be a similar scenario. However without Property Rights ie: ownership, it's merely a thaksin fantasy and he really needs to stop jerking off for a while and maybe his eyesight will return.

A few of his accomplices were educated in Florida ( UF, USF,) but obviously they're deploying the enforcement which they learned and not the aspects of a free society.

No property rights, no human rights and vice versa.

Mr Vietnam

[saowalack]

Is the thai government going to draft in the armed forces to help tha Pattaya police to enforce the early closing hours in the 1000 s of bars and does any one know whether Pattaya is going t0 be designated as an area of late drinking

[webfact]

It would be interesting to learn how the local Thai press will comment on this...

[saowalack]

from squadie the thai press will say what the government wants them to say you can be sure there will be no campaign promoted by any thai newspaer against these draconian laws

[somboon]

The people in the Thai Government are a bunch of ######s. If they are representative of the Thai people of voting age (and one would think and expect them to be representative) the the general Thai populace are a bunch of the same.

One thing that I don't think has been raised in the current forum is the purported reasons for the earlier closing times. One that was being bandied about over the past weeks is that the earlier closing time would cut down on the sexual activities of Thai youth. Well in the first place they shouldn't be in the bars anyway (and wouldn't if the realms finest were doing their job) Well now with the earlier closing time these young people will now connect up earlier in the evening and have more time available to screww themselves senseless. All in all just another case of TIT

[Rinrada]

"except in Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Samut Prakan and Uttaradit, where entertainment zones have yet to be designated".

I have been trying to find a half decent bar in Sam Prac. for the last 5 years but nothing.

We had a nice litttle expat sports gin joint in the condo block but it was taking over by some Thais and its now a grim toss pot knocking/kara-oke shop on Theparak.

There are loads of big Thai places all over the place(all neon lights and singing cats)where our happy local gangsters-sorry business chappies hang out but apart from Tescos on See-nak-arin and the 69Bt BBQs around samrong....zilch.

Suppose to be positive this area could become the new "in place"

but apart from the crok farm and the chang yai who has ever heard of it?... never mind actually gone there......116 bus -ha baht

[frenchFARANGbkk]

4. There has been no change to the hours for selling/serving alcohol, right ? I mean one can still get beer from 7-11 after midnight or one can still get beer at a restaurant after midnight, right ? I am asking this because somewhere I read about someone going to a 7-11 and being told that he cannot purchase beer, as it is past midnight.

I don't know if, according to the law, all "7-11" shops should stop selling alcohol after midnight, but some of them apply the law stickly, and stop selling any kind of alcohol after midnight (khaosan road for example), maybe because the police is not far...?

[digibum]

Will there be any positive effects of all these changes? Yes. Once the economic impact has been felt, the pendulum will swing the other way. Yes, it will take time but meanwhile the girls will be accepting a lot less money for their services and will lose some of the attitude they have adopted lately.

I do think this will be interesting from a economics pov. At least initially one would expect greater competition for customers as it becomes obvious that the shorter hours will have a negative effect on nightlife (bars, girls, etc.) profitiability. This could set off mini-pricing wars as clubs drop cover charges, lower drink prices, bar fines, etc. and would spill over to the "companionship" economy as well as girls are forced to compete for jobs in an ever decreasing number of bars. Those who are able to find work in the bars and go-gos will most likely be forced to take price cuts as they face competition from a larger crowd of freelancers who are likely to try to compensate for not being in a bar by lowering thier prices. The girls are also more likely to be forced into very one-sided employment relationships which will make the business even that more damaging for those who enter it.

So to some degree, if the objective is to reduce vice this is a very poor way to accomplish that. It seems as if it would drive a great deal of the girls into freelancing which is even less accountable than the bar girls are today. Plus, how many out of work girls and guys are going to resort to crime? However, one might also speculate that this does benefit a very small set of bar owners. Those with solid financial resources can weather the initial loss of revenue in return for less competiton from other establishments and greater negotiatiating power for certain types of resources (girls, real estate, etc.).

Also, my take on Mr. Vietnam's comments are that it's like comparing apples and oranges. I love visting BKK but it's far from paradise. Sure, it's a wonderful place but I think there's a different motivation for people to live in Ft. Lauderdale than there is living in Bangkok. Affluent people can decide to live in Ft. Lauderdale. Affluent people cannot decide to live in BKK. Where are they going to come from, Chaing Mai? People already living in poverty are the ones who migrate to BKK.

If Thailand wants a different class of tourist/immigrant it needs to start thinking about a foreign investment. Nobody wants to invest in a country that will treat you like a second class citizen. Sure, you can buy your million baht card and get into a few golf clubs but until they start doing things like offering citizenship to non-Thai spouses, offering the opportunity to easily purchase property and whatever other changes need to be made so that people can actually feel as if they're welcome they're going to be viewed as a nice place to visit but not a place anybody would want to live and thus very few foreign investment dollars will flow. What kind of Westerner wants to invest in a business that they have to give up ownership rights to just to comply with the law? How many affluent Westerners are going to plunk down serious cash for homes when it's still somewhat vague if they actually own the home? In the US and many other Western nations, a large sector of the economy is driven by the small business person and the appreciation in real estate. Western investors want to create wealth and as long as the Thai government makes sure that it's next to impossible to establish any sort of long-term wealth building for non-Thai citizens then all they're going to get is people who are looking for a cheap place to live and an ample supply of girls and nightlife as all they're offering is short-term opportunities to enjoy the fruits of one's labors.

If anything Thailand seems to be taking its lead from Mexico which lives next door to one of the richest countries in the world but is only one step above third-world. Several years ago a whole community of US expats and retirees were ousted from their homes because some politician decided to give the land back to the historical owners. The number of people retiring in Mexico had a sharp drop after that little incident which almost erupted into an international affair between the two governments. With the exception of a few multi-nationals few Americans invest in Mexico despite the fact you can walk right across the border from places like El Paso and San Diego and open a business for 1/4 of what it would cost a mile north in the US. Between the corruption of the government and police and the very anti-gringo attitude of the country they all but guarantee that they will be in a countinous cycle of poverty. Is this really the playbook Thailand wants to adopt?

[Kringle]

[markoinbangkok]

Thank the stars... no more waiting around till 3 in the morning to avoid a fookin' bar fine!

Life IS sweet!

[ajahnlau]

Take a closer look at this gift from cabinet. Less tourists will be welcome for ex-pats living here. The farangs left will be appreciated that much more.Prices on everything will go down. Economy should take a bit of a dive and all should be happy. Bring on the 50 to 1, 97 baht. Remember we are only guests here and what they do with there country is there business. Other countries in the region could use the tourist $$ that Thailand doesn't want. These beer drinking sex tourists only push up prices. Don't worry about the supply, some of those cute waitresses put out of work in the bar will be forced to look for other well paying jobs. Beer prices might even go down with demand. I'll drink to that!

[lahgon29]

Just wondering.... With the 2AM close, as at present, many bars in Pattaya just turn off the music and carry on as before. It's easy to drink to 4am, and i've never seen the nations finest closing any of them down.

So with the 12PM close, will this practise continue? I can live without the music when i'm pissed, but i DO need a bar to lean on

[gisele]

So, what are the entertainment zones in Samui? and Phuket?

In Samui for example, is the whole island an entertainment zone?

[Up2U]

The current cabinet, especially Takhsin and Purachai, think that this is the way to curb the sex-tourist industry, which is someething they do not want as the principle advert for Thailand. This is understadable.

What is not understandable is the extraordinarily stupid way thst they have approached the subject.

They are using the dictatorial way of saying 'I know best. this is what you must do.' as they have in so many other aspects of their government.

They have not looked at other countries (remember the Aussie 'Six O'Clock swill' when bars closed that early. Same in UK when closing time was 10.00, 10.30 or 11.00 pm, depending on location. The last half-hour or more was spent getting well-ratted before leaving. Now UK is more civilised, with pubs closing when they want. Oz will never be civilised, but at least the pubs stay open ....

The girls will be forced on to the streets, or into underground brothels if many bars and go-go's close. They will not stop their trade, most are not sufficiently educated to be able to do anything else that will bring a comparable (after tax) income.

Gangsters can control street girls and brothels much more easily than semi-legitimate bars and clubs. They will flourish. The drugs will be back, ten times more available. Gang war will flourish.

This is the legacy Takhsin and Purachai will leave when (if ever) they relinquish power.

Goodbye to the Thailand we all know and love - Welcome Detroit, Watts, Manchester (UK) and similar gang-controlled urban jungles.

Move toCambodia for the goodlife - I'm thinking of opening a hotel in Snooky (Sihanoukville). Any prospective partners?

[ChiangMaiThai]

Purachai, you IDIOT!!!

[ChiangMaiThai]

Regulate and regulate and throw some more laws at the problem and everything will be just fine... While there is momentum, I'd like to reintroduce the idea of a national bedtime.

[ayakiawe]

I would really like to know what these new rules will mean for Koh Samui ???

Can anyone tel me what "zone" Koh Samui is in?

I dont know if there will be a change or what here?

Are there diffent zones for this island?

Is Chawang for example really closing at midnight?

What about Lamai?

Do the kadaoki shops in Naton have to close up too?

Please if you know answer these questions??

Thanks from Samui

[ovenman]

The new rules will take effect nationwide, except in Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Samut Prakan and Uttaradit, where entertainment zones have yet to be designated.

I take this to mean that it has yet to be determined which pooyai's cousin's land will be designated the entertainment zone in these four provinces, thereby trebling its value.

[ChiangMaiThai]

The new rules will take effect nationwide, except in Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Samut Prakan and Uttaradit, where entertainment zones have yet to be designated.

I take this to mean that it has yet to be determined which pooyai's cousin's land will be designated the entertainment zone in these four provinces, thereby trebling its value.

I couldn't agree more. Imagine the Baht that are changing hands right now as 'entertainment zones' are 'designated'. TRT at its best...

[ovenman]

The current cabinet, especially Takhsin and Purachai, think that this is the way to curb the sex-tourist industry, which is someething they do not want as the principle advert for Thailand. This is understadable.

From what I read regarding the intentions behind this new law when it was first proposed, I was under the impresion that it was geared more towards curbing "undesireable behaviour" in the Thai-oriented nightlife establishments than anything to do with the farang nightlife sector. Any effect on the latter is merely a bonus for the politicians involved.

Please keep in mind that this legislation effects the entirety of Thailand and not merely the tourism-related nightspots.

[zakk9]

The most worrying part here is probably not the tourism business, but the entertainment venues for the locals. Since most Thais work until 6 p.m. or longer, they go out late, like 9 or 10 p.m. Opening hours of "their" nightspots have always reflected that, and until 2-3 yars ago, many of them didn't even open until 10 or 11, but in the other end, they closed at 6 in the morning.

With the new rules, and most of the karaokes and cafes are local spots, far from any zones, they have 2-3 hours to earn their living. You don't need to be an accountant to figure out the result of that, and for the tens if not hundreds of thousands of girls working there, who now have a kind of "available-for-nice-customers" but not really prostitute status, the only alternative would be the streets or the illegal clubs.

If that is social progress, I really feel sorry for the female population of this country. The gangsters are the only ones winning from this.

[mai_ra_bu_cheu]

Tourists - go to bed earlier,start drinking earlier, if you must drink. Remember most tourists don't come here for the beer! If you don't like it go somewhere else.

I would like to see less tourists here, it can be good for most of the "residents" here.

"Residents", you should know about the regulations only applying in the tourist areas. Stay away from them, they are for tourists, who can afford to be ripped off and are none the wiser. How many times have you drank on Buddhist holidays?

I went down sukhumvit soi 7 yesterday and saw the tourist police ######s, standing next to their no littering sign as a Thai guy walked past and flicked his fag in the gutter. Remember ALL Thais in this area do not like Farang, accept it and go elsewhere.

I remember as a young,poor English teacher here having great fun buying beer chang from the supermarket in Pat Pong, and hanging around outside with heaps of others.

LETS ALL HAVE A STREET PARTY.

Assuming 7-11 can still sell beer all through the night.

Seriously though, what about the chronic alcoholic, who can't buy booze in the middle of the night. There are many of those around! They will be screwed if ALL places stop selling, which of course will not happen.

Life will go on as usual, unless you are a tourist.

[pnustedt]

I heard a report on HK radio this morning that there is a curfew being imposed on under 18s in LOS - they reckoned that they would not be allowed out between 10 pm and 4 am. Citing an increase in gang rapes. I am surprised not to see anything here.

Perhaps HK radio got it wrong?