Restriction of liquor sale time takes effect today throughout Thailand

[Alwyn]

This law only seems to apply to the big sellers, 7-11, Tesco and so on. All the small family shops will get an extra income, because they don't care about this restriction - and this makes them really happy, courtesy of the General.

No difference at all the 11-2 and 5-12 law has been in place for years now, maybe 8 years or so.

[tigermonkey]

This law only seems to apply to the big sellers, 7-11, Tesco and so on. All the small family shops will get an extra income, because they don't care about this restriction - and this makes them really happy, courtesy of the General.

No difference at all the 11-2 and 5-12 law has been in place for years now, maybe 8 years or so.

The big change is the removal of the exemption for large quantity sales. I guess it was just too tempting for the students to buy large quantities

[joboss]

??? So in the afternoon, between 2 PM and 5 PM I can't walk into a 7-11 and buy a bottle of beer?

You could try a small shop down a quite soi.

[asiamaster]

These reporters are supposed to be setting an example to us mere mortals with respect to correct writing. If this is the case, what does 12 pm mean? 12 noon or 12 midnight, ie, 1200 hrs or 2400 hrs Such misuse of the English language only brings confusion. Tut, tut!

I believe that is usually supposed to be noon, but here they mean midnight.

Oh- so 12 pm comes after 11 am?

[SPB65]

Just more laws to be broken and more back handers to the police. Lets hear a big round of applause for the Thai govt.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

A country once called Land of the free, now ruled by new moralistic dinosaurs.

Alcoholic per chance???

No, but I don't believe in rules like this one, they have failed in all other countries who have introduced them. Alcoholics will always find their alcohol someway with or without sales restrictions.

[joboss]

Glad to see this thread is still proceedingly along merrily, even though there has been no substantive change to the law!

Except now its going to be enforced, so a fairly big change if they pull it off and a lot of interest to many people, hence the proceeding merrily

These toss pots could not even enforce the price of lottery tickets, they have no chance of enforcing booze sales. How about restricting the hours of selling pussy?

Haha! First time I've heard of a "toss pot". Is that when you can't play with your all day girl between 2pm and 5pm? ? maybe "pot toss" ,Just to pass the time.

[nithisa78]

how many countries do the genius here care for, build and maintenance.

[bangrak]

Has anything really changed for the average purchaser of beer?

Yes, the following:

1) The 10l. exception is gone: even when you'd buy 2 boxes of your favourite lager in one time, you'd now have to do it within the imposed two time brackets, no more at any time of your choice;

2) In theory, as I don't seen well how it could be enforced, pubs, (lady and other) bars, karaokes, ...clubs and disco's, are not allowed to sell any alcoholic beverages anymore from midnight on...

The exception granted to 'restaurants', normally(...!), places the main activity of is serving food, is maintained, but when they'd get serious about 1), I guess they could really check that the alcoholic beverages served there effectively complement the consumption of food only.

In my home country, it is said that when a (f.i. new) law or regulation cannot possibly be enforced, that then it is a bad law or regulation, and that it has to be adapted to the reality of facts making it possible to be enforeced, and when that is not possible, that bad law or regulation has to be removed pure and simple. Common sense and good logic I'd say, but I must admit personally I have seen very little of these in this country...

What I realistically see in this new regulation is a new bonanza for the BiB to extort more money than ever before from 'evening and night venues' (even from restaurants), and of course, a new opportunuty for Police officers to become 'silent partners' in such places' companies, without paing 1Baht for the shares naturally...

How this all fits within the great fight against corruption and the reorganisation in depth of the RTP is not clear to me. But no doubt this measure is only taken to further propagate Buddhist values, and prevent the Thais from committing the sin of drinking alcohol, sure-sure...

(Can anyone point out to me where it has been written that Prince Sidharta and the later Lord Buddha didn't enjoy drinking wine for instance?)

[bim]

Good job I got my 20 litres of wine from Makro yesterday.

[MrY]

Who would have thunk. International Airports will now become entertainment venues. Suvarnabhumi can immediately start building Terminal 2 and fill it with bars. Transit hotels for short time rooms. No need to even build gates or install jetways...

[duanebigsby]

Are there any statistics regarding rules achieving anything?

I'm sure drunk driving laws and enforcement have drastically reduced deaths. As well as crash-test laws for auto makers.

Need more? or links?

[mortenaa]

I had a bar here for 13 years, and when they first introduced these stupid restrictions we approached the police to clarify our situation as we were open from the morning until...........whenever. The ruling applies to retail outlets, and not licensed premises. Nothing has changed here. Through misinterpretation of the rules, some hotels in the area closed their bars between 2 and 5, but by law, as they were licensed premises, they didn't have to.

Unless they change the licences, it remains the same.

... while entertainment venues which in the past were allowed to sell alcohol from 9.00 pm – 2.00 am can only do so up to midnight.

This means that in total, night time entertainment venues can only legally sell alcohol for 5 hours every day which in total is less than regular restaurants.

[tetleythedog]

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MAKRO is going to be very busy between 11am & 2pm.

And.......................don't forget it will be a new source of income for the BIB !!!

[writeshack]

What about small shops that need to restock. The Makro here in Isan is extremely busy on weekends between 2pm-5pm, with customers buying thousands of baht of goods for resale, including beer, whisky etc. So they will turn up tomorrow and be turned away?

[nisakiman]

This law only seems to apply to the big sellers, 7-11, Tesco and so on. All the small family shops will get an extra income, because they don't care about this restriction - and this makes them really happy, courtesy of the General.

No difference at all the 11-2 and 5-12 law has been in place for years now, maybe 8 years or so.

True, but 8 years of stupid doesn't change the fact that it still remains stupid. These rules are made by people who generally have no idea of the consequences of their actions, and actually don't care. Their main motivation is to be seen to be 'doing something'. The fact that that 'something' serves merely to inconvenience everyone without offering any discernable benefit is irrelevant. The cry went out from the puritans: "Something must be done!", so a knee-jerk reaction was instigated. Doesn't matter that it will screw things up for millions of tourists. Doesn't matter that it will achieve zilch. Doesn't matter that late venues will lose shedloads of money. SOMETHING HAS BEEN DONE! "Look at me! I'm addressing 'the problem' (whatever that is...)".

Just like the idiocy of covering cigarette displays. Doesn't stop anyone smoking, but it sure as hell makes life difficult for the tourist who wants to know what's on offer behind those shutters in the local 7-11.

In fact I had a combination of both idiocies last week in Bangkok. I went to a bottle shop in Paragon to buy some rolling tobacco, but not living here, I have no idea what's available, so I tied up the till staff getting them to open the doors and show me what they had etc. This was just before 2 pm, so of course an increasingly irate line of people, bottles of wine or whatever in hand were hassling to get to the till before the 2 pm deadline. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And for what? What benefit derived from that little circus? None, except a bunch of people, including me were unnecessarily, pointlessly inconvenienced.

[brewsterbudgen]

I had a bar here for 13 years, and when they first introduced these stupid restrictions we approached the police to clarify our situation as we were open from the morning until...........whenever. The ruling applies to retail outlets, and not licensed premises. Nothing has changed here. Through misinterpretation of the rules, some hotels in the area closed their bars between 2 and 5, but by law, as they were licensed premises, they didn't have to.

Unless they change the licences, it remains the same.

... while entertainment venues which in the past were allowed to sell alcohol from 9.00 pm – 2.00 am can only do so up to midnight.

This means that in total, night time entertainment venues can only legally sell alcohol for 5 hours every day which in total is less than regular restaurants.

Not if their licence stipulates otherwise. The Entertainment Zones (Patpong, Cowboy, RCA, Ratchada) are allowed to sell alcohol until 2am and some other businesses may have similar provisions to stay open later.

[Phuketboy]

People taking about 2am if paying tea money… well try 4am as this is when most bars around Bangla close.

[mortenaa]

Not if their licence stipulates otherwise. The Entertainment Zones (Patpong, Cowboy, RCA, Ratchada) are allowed to sell alcohol until 2am and some other businesses may have similar provisions to stay open later.

So when these places are shut down at midnight or 1am, which has happened quite often lately, they can just show their license to prove the police wrong? Interesting..

[seajae]

Where it will effect me sometimes is that I have to travel 80 kms to a Makro, where sometimes I would buy wine and spirits. This now means I need to plan my trip carefully to fiti in with the hours. Not so important but could be inconvenient.

The hours for selling alcohol have not changed in general, but looks like the go go bars will be hit hard.

Why would it affect gogo bars? They have their own operating licences.

Because they have to stop selling at midnight instead of 0200?

"At all other times, alcohol sales are strictly forbidden with the exception of at international airport terminals and legally registered entertainment venues which have laws that strictly govern the periods they can operate daily". This is near the top of the article, while bars may have to close, if they are a legally registered entertainment venue they have their own operating hours, doesnt give the time they need to close so this means they can still operate. I think the person that wrote the article has translated what was stated to mean what he thinks and not what is meant by the law, we definitely need clarification on this before assuming it means all venues close at midnight etc

[sgtsabai]

Airports however are given the same allowance as before while entertainment venues which in the past were allowed to sell alcohol from 9.00 pm 2.00 am can only do so up to midnight.

This means that in total, night time entertainment venues can only legally sell alcohol for 5 hours every day which in total is less than regular restaurants.

Wait, last time I checked 9.00 PM to midnight would be 3 hours. Is there something wrong with the interpretation there, what is an "entertainment venue", and does this mean bars can only sell alcohol from 2100 to 0000? Somehow I think (hope) this is a bad translation. The bars up here have been forced to close at midnight since the coup, oops new government. The police have roadblocks every where everyday, every night, checking for any and everything they can. No farangs go to the bar and drive home after dark now (cab or sam lo) even if they aren't over the limit. Thais have contacts and know the way home bypassing the roadblocks. All in all just more confusion from the moral police now in charge of this country. I think dear leader doesn't like us very much. And just a word or 3 to the farang do-gooders on this forum, church is on sunday, be sure to go and spout your crap then. Crawl back in your troglidyte holes.

[Anthony5]

A country once called Land of the free, now ruled by new moralistic dinosaurs.

Thailand has never been a country free for the masses, it's always been free for a select few, while the majority has always been surpressed.

[Anthony5]

I had a bar here for 13 years, and when they first introduced these stupid restrictions we approached the police to clarify our situation as we were open from the morning until...........whenever. The ruling applies to retail outlets, and not licensed premises. Nothing has changed here. Through misinterpretation of the rules, some hotels in the area closed their bars between 2 and 5, but by law, as they were licensed premises, they didn't have to.

Unless they change the licences, it remains the same.

... while entertainment venues which in the past were allowed to sell alcohol from 9.00 pm – 2.00 am can only do so up to midnight.

This means that in total, night time entertainment venues can only legally sell alcohol for 5 hours every day which in total is less than regular restaurants.

Not if their licence stipulates otherwise. The Entertainment Zones (Patpong, Cowboy, RCA, Ratchada) are allowed to sell alcohol until 2am and some other businesses may have similar provisions to stay open later.

A license state if you are allowed to sell booze and/or other services. It never stipulates between which time it is allowed.

So if the new law says midnight, then midnight it will be.

[Evilbaz]

Already (mostly) rescinded here on Phuket.

New translators desperately needed.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/No-change-alcohol-vending-hours-despite-new/48144

Edited January 24, 2015 by Evilbaz

[Anthony5]

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I had a bar here for 13 years, and when they first introduced these stupid restrictions we approached the police to clarify our situation as we were open from the morning until...........whenever. The ruling applies to retail outlets, and not licensed premises. Nothing has changed here. Through misinterpretation of the rules, some hotels in the area closed their bars between 2 and 5, but by law, as they were licensed premises, they didn't have to.

Unless they change the licences, it remains the same.

There is another thread about the alcohol restrictions started a few weeks ago. I think it is in the Chiang Mai forum.

Entertainment places or restaurants have never been exempt from the alcohol restrictions, but allowed by the police in return for tea money. The only ones who are exempt are large hotels, international airports and a few other places.

[26vinny]

just another way for the RTP to extort more tea money

[kingstonkid]

I think TAT will be screaming about this soon if they are not already.

Imagine Soi cowboy, Patpong, Walking Street only open from 9-12.

Yep that will bring the touristas

Then again what is the definition of a restaurant.

If serving microwaved pizza, and hot dogs classifies as a restaurant then i can see a change to the menus at clubs.

Leo

Chang 200 baht with free hotdog ( but please do not eat it. We need it for another customer tomorrow night)

[Alwyn]

This law only seems to apply to the big sellers, 7-11, Tesco and so on. All the small family shops will get an extra income, because they don't care about this restriction - and this makes them really happy, courtesy of the General.

No difference at all the 11-2 and 5-12 law has been in place for years now, maybe 8 years or so.

True, but 8 years of stupid doesn't change the fact that it still remains stupid. These rules are made by people who generally have no idea of the consequences of their actions, and actually don't care. Their main motivation is to be seen to be 'doing something'. The fact that that 'something' serves merely to inconvenience everyone without offering any discernable benefit is irrelevant. The cry went out from the puritans: "Something must be done!", so a knee-jerk reaction was instigated. Doesn't matter that it will screw things up for millions of tourists. Doesn't matter that it will achieve zilch. Doesn't matter that late venues will lose shedloads of money. SOMETHING HAS BEEN DONE! "Look at me! I'm addressing 'the problem' (whatever that is...)".

Just like the idiocy of covering cigarette displays. Doesn't stop anyone smoking, but it sure as hell makes life difficult for the tourist who wants to know what's on offer behind those shutters in the local 7-11.

In fact I had a combination of both idiocies last week in Bangkok. I went to a bottle shop in Paragon to buy some rolling tobacco, but not living here, I have no idea what's available, so I tied up the till staff getting them to open the doors and show me what they had etc. This was just before 2 pm, so of course an increasingly irate line of people, bottles of wine or whatever in hand were hassling to get to the till before the 2 pm deadline. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And for what? What benefit derived from that little circus? None, except a bunch of people, including me were unnecessarily, pointlessly inconvenienced.

I couldn't agree with you more! When the law first came into being it was actually quite clever. The law only covered the bigger supermarkets at that time, only the likes of Tesco and Big C etc had to curtail their hours, smaller shops like 7-11 were okay. This was of course when Thaksin was at the helm. Thaksin owned 50% of the 7-11 franchises and there something like 8 new ones a week opening. So what he did was force people into having to buy booze in the afternoons from 7-11! Clever or what! (At least that's how my father in law explained it to me). I'm sorry to say that this autocrat PM seems to be doing all he can to slaughter the tourism industry in Thailand and it's so wrong..

[chrisinth]

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I had a bar here for 13 years, and when they first introduced these stupid restrictions we approached the police to clarify our situation as we were open from the morning until...........whenever. The ruling applies to retail outlets, and not licensed premises. Nothing has changed here. Through misinterpretation of the rules, some hotels in the area closed their bars between 2 and 5, but by law, as they were licensed premises, they didn't have to.

Unless they change the licences, it remains the same.

... while entertainment venues which in the past were allowed to sell alcohol from 9.00 pm – 2.00 am can only do so up to midnight.

This means that in total, night time entertainment venues can only legally sell alcohol for 5 hours every day which in total is less than regular restaurants.

What are these entertainment venues that had these licences? To be allowed to sell alcohol for just this period of time? That was my question.

Besides, if the current law allows them to be open from 21:00 until 02:00, that is 5 hours. If they now can only sell until midnight, according to the OP, that would mean they are only allowed to sell alcohol for 3 hours.

Please show me a person who would base a business on these times, unless it is a front for something else.

Ludicrous in my view.......................

[mortenaa]

A license state if you are allowed to sell booze and/or other services. It never stipulates between which time it is allowed.

So if the new law says midnight, then midnight it will be.

Yes, I think you are right. Except for specific entertainment zones.

I finally found the real press release in Thai, and seems like the law has two exceptions. This is the 2nd:

การ ขาย ใน สถานบริการ ซึ่ง เป็น ไปตาม กำหนด เวลา เปิด ปิด ของ สถานบริการ ตามกฎหมาย ว่าด้วย สถานบริการ

Which transliterates something like: Selling in entertainment spot which according to the specified time open / close of the entertainment spot according to the law of that entertainment spot.

So I guess that means unless your in one of the designated entertainment spots, you need to close down midnight.