Question about Thai gambling and debts

[sir charles IV]

Op I hope this post is not related to your other post today about getting custody before your pregnant gf gives birth. Nonetheless to answer ur question from personal experience I've had both types one gambling and one the opposite. The later is now my wife. She genuinly gets pissed off when I buy 2 lottery tickets every month. Except of course when I won 2000 tbh she grabbed the ticket from me cashed it in and straight into gold shop next door followed by me putting up another 1000 to buy a small ring. And yes as usual nothing for me!!!

Edited December 15, 2015 by sir charles IV

[DP25]

Who's claiming anything? Ok then, let me ask you: Have you known a bunch of Thai girls that are degenerate gamblers?

Loads,

They've gambled houses and cars away.

Usually the houses and cars purchased by their white husbands.

Cards, dominoes, lottery, they will gamble on anything.

Was with a bunch of them playing dominoes when they were raided by police and carted away in a van.

Lucky for me, I was eating lunch, away from the table at the time, the police left me alone.

I did bail my (now ex) gf out later.

Criminality seems to be widespread through the general population of Thailand.

Thai people taking, dealing, involved with, drugs, alcohol (legal and illegal), prostitution, protection and gangs, hard to avoid unless you hide yourself away.

Too extreme generalisation, and obviously false like all prejudices.

I haven't met any Thai in my acquaintances who fit in your description.

You should change the environment you seem attracted to and you may change your mind.

Most foreigners only date bar girls, and the only Thai people they ever get to know are their girlfriend, her thieving relatives, her bar girl friends, her unemployed brother (boyfriend), and maybe a tuk tuk driver or two, and generalize that experience on to 65 million people.

Just imagine a Japanese dude that moves to Vegas and marries a hooker 30 years his junior, then moves to her trailer park in Kentucky and starts generalizing how all Americans are unemployed alcoholics, meth addicts, on welfare with 3 kids from 3 different fathers, etc. That's basically the average farang experience in Thailand.

[MaeJoMTB]

Most foreigners only date bar girls, and the only Thai people they ever get to know are their girlfriend, her thieving relatives, her bar girl friends, her unemployed brother (boyfriend), and maybe a tuk tuk driver or two, and generalize that experience on to 65 million people.

The other 65M aren't all that different to the bar girls and their families ...... from what I've seen.

I live in a middle class Thai estate, no foreigners except me.

They nearly all like gambling,

Many of the Thai wives have very loose knickers,

Many of the Thai husbands like whoring and drinking.

Edited December 15, 2015 by MaeJoMTB

[TuskegeeBen]

Got it wrong ..G/F BROTHER lost m/bike at cards

Apparently, you didn't get the drift of that

Edited December 15, 2015 by TuskegeeBen

[TuskegeeBen]

Who's claiming anything? Ok then, let me ask you: Have you known a bunch of Thai girls that are degenerate gamblers?

Loads,

They've gambled houses and cars away.

Usually the houses and cars purchased by their white husbands.

Cards, dominoes, lottery, they will gamble on anything.

Was with a bunch of them playing dominoes when they were raided by police and carted away in a van.

Lucky for me, I was eating lunch, away from the table at the time, the police left me alone.

I did bail my (now ex) gf out later.

Criminality seems to be widespread through the general population of Thailand.

Thai people taking, dealing, involved with, drugs, alcohol (legal and illegal), prostitution, protection and gangs, hard to avoid unless you hide yourself away.

Too extreme generalisation, and obviously false like all prejudices.

I haven't met any Thai in my acquaintances who fit in your description.

You should change the environment you seem attracted to and you may change your mind.

Most foreigners only date bar girls, and the only Thai people they ever get to know are their girlfriend, her thieving relatives, her bar girl friends, her unemployed brother (boyfriend), and maybe a tuk tuk driver or two, and generalize that experience on to 65 million people.

Just imagine a Japanese dude that moves to Vegas and marries a hooker 30 years his junior, then moves to her trailer park in Kentucky and starts generalizing how all Americans are unemployed alcoholics, meth addicts, on welfare with 3 kids from 3 different fathers, etc. That's basically the average farang experience in Thailand.

Well stated

[ozyjon]

Please don't turn these posts into a sledging / grudging match,,

i learn a lot from reading other peoples questions and answers

so getting personal doesn't impress me and wastes my time,,

i love all answers that relate to the post,,

Thank you.

[TuskegeeBen]

Got it wrong ..G/F BROTHER lost m/bike at cards

Got it wrong again there buddy. Your girlfriend's BOYFRIEND lost the motorbike playing cards.

Spot on

[eastendanto]

if it is illegal then they will come.... gambling is illegal in Thailand, but it happens in most if not all of Thailand. The Thais see this as their get out of jail for a poor life style card by winning the big score (is it really any different any where else in the world), but unfortunately I've seen how moorish the Thai psyche is, generally they get addicted to whatever is their particular flavour of the moment whether gambling, drugs, drink etc... I have been very fortunate in that my wife understands all of this and I would not build house on land that her mum/dad promised her until the deed had been signed over to my wife, sadly MIL passed away before house finished but it did not stop the FIL selling a pocket of my wife's land to a neighbouring lady for 20K baht which he lost the very same night gambling somewhere or other. When I arrived over their earlier this year neighbour banging on my door asking for 50K baht owed to her which made up of 20K loan and the rest interest. Got my wife to translate to her sex and travel and dutifully pointed out that the land is under title to my wife and can never be sold to non blood family, or rented or leased, it can only be passed down to siblings. Once it dawned on her that she'd be had over by the FIL she just wanted her 20K baht back.....so I gave her the sex and travel answer again, so it's all between her and the FIL now. Never underestimate the shenanigans of the Thais to pull strokes like this as in the part of Isaan where we have our home, they are mostly uneducated, and live day to day, so have nothing better to do but to think how they can get money to gamble, drink, do drugs or whatever. They have no inclination to live for the future, they only care about living for the day. Whilst I have no particular grudge against living that way, I do get the hump when it effects me and my family directly financially...or at least the asking of money from me or my wife by strangers to us saying they are owed by the FIL and that he never signed "paper" (IOU) with them when borrowing money as he had rich farang SIL to cover it.....I've got the noose tighter around his neck these days but it doesn't stop him trying...

So going back to the OP's questions

1. Not only restricted to Isaan but anywhere in Thailand that has people who want to gamble. During Song Kran, the area where we

have our home there are gambling stalls allowed around the village for the duration of the festival and the owners of these "game"

stalls clean up from what can only be described as "mug" punters.... a Thai professional gambler is a rare animal if such a thing

exists!!

2. From my perspective many of the Thais who go down the route of putting up their house/land/car/gold etc... and losing it, are

addicts nothing more, nothing less and because many westerners get to see it first hand over there it appears that there are too

many incidents of this kind for it to be an exception. I do not know for sure but I suspect that is why gambling is illegal because if it

were made legal in Thailand the incidence of such happenings would be front page news on most days of the week !!

3. They have nothing to lose by asking Farang SIL or Boyfriend of daughter as they have nothing in the first place and what they

borrowed to fund their gambling has also turned into nothing. so yes they will ask.... This is something that needs to be nipped in

the bud early if you are in a serious relationship with a girl. The parents need to understand that you are not and never will be an

unlimited ATM for them to access, you'll be called cheap charlie and the suchlike, but rather that then no money left charlie eh!!!

[TuskegeeBen]

I have heard these stories also. But I've dated quite a few Thai girls over the years and have yet to meet one with a severe gambling problem. So my question would be: where are some of you guys meeting these girls? I could take a wild guess.

Don't be judgmental now. Just count your own blessings, that you've enjoyed an unusually lucky sojourn, in the LoS. k?

Edited December 15, 2015 by TuskegeeBen

[Blue Muton]

Now come on.....read the title, read the rest.............

But some of us aren't fishing anymore...made the big catch...

Maybe the chef is not quite so crazy after all.

[bigote54]

I have had a few in 35 years here the worst was $20000 that I had to pay or the old bill would have me shot .Had to borrow on my flat from the chinaman paid back in two years.she ran off with an arab hope he was rich.

[bazza40]

Most foreigners only date bar girls, and the only Thai people they ever get to know are their girlfriend, her thieving relatives, her bar girl friends, her unemployed brother (boyfriend), and maybe a tuk tuk driver or two, and generalize that experience on to 65 million people.

The other 65M aren't all that different to the bar girls and their families ...... from what I've seen.

I live in a middle class Thai estate, no foreigners except me.

They nearly all like gambling,

Many of the Thai wives have very loose knickers,

Many of the Thai husbands like whoring and drinking.

You seem to be living in a classy neighbourhood.

[bazza40]

It really depends on who you hook up with. Yes, my Thai GF gambles. However, it's with the village women, where the biggest winnings from an afternoon of gambling will be 40 baht.

I believe I've managed to convince her that debt is bad, so she no longer pawns her gold at the pawnbroker.

Having said that, debt seems to be endemic in Thailand. Many of the villagers have shiny scooters and pickups, with debt to match.

The concept of saving to buy something without debt appears to be a foreign concept to many Thais. Then again, it's also a strange idea to many Westerners.

[MaeJoMTB]

You seem to be living in a classy neighbourhood.

Sometimes you're just better off not speaking Thai and hanging out in foreigner ghettos.

[Berkshire]

I have heard these stories also. But I've dated quite a few Thai girls over the years and have yet to meet one with a severe gambling problem. So my question would be: where are some of you guys meeting these girls? I could take a wild guess.

Don't be judgmental now. Just count your own blessings, that you've enjoyed an unusually lucky sojourn, in the LoS. k?

Nope, it's not that I'm lucky. It's that you and many like you are unusually unlucky. It seems that there's a few guys like you who are constantly unlucky in Thailand....for whatever reason.

[NickJ]

If I even had a whiff of my current gf pulling any stunts with cards, numbers or the shares game I would get rid of her with no question. My ex was a gambler. Hid it well. I could write a book. Yeah they gamble and its often the case that its found out when its to late. I looked at it from the POV that she was sick. She looked at it like it was her job to do whatever she could do to keep it hidden from me. Never again.

[MaeJoMTB]

Nope, it's not that I'm lucky. It's that you and many like you are unusually unlucky. It seems that there's a few guys like you who are constantly unlucky in Thailand....for whatever reason.

More likely you're overly trusting and unusually gullible.

[bazza40]

You seem to be living in a classy neighbourhood.

Sometimes you're just better off not speaking Thai and hanging out in foreigner ghettos.

And the cryptic champion of the week is..... I speak reasonable Thai, hang out in a foreigner ghetto 50% of the time, in a Thai farming village the other 50%. Perhaps I'm schizophrenic.

[MauiSteveBKK]

FUNERAL = GAMBLING (Issan)

Never been to a funeral where there was no gambling.

Thai Women:

- Eat

- Sleep

- Dream of "Easy Money". The Big Lottery Ticket. Get Rich Quick Scheme. Be Lucky.

It's an epidemic.

[TheKnave]

Gambling is HUGE in Isaan.

I used to watch the sky for rocket trails on weekends, then follow the crowd to some field in the middle of nowhere to go and watch the rocket competition. Many thousands of baht changed hands, being bet on time aloft, men and women alike, with notes clenched between their fingers.

Dangerous, but fun to watch...sad to see the losers.

[Berkshire]

Nope, it's not that I'm lucky. It's that you and many like you are unusually unlucky. It seems that there's a few guys like you who are constantly unlucky in Thailand....for whatever reason.

More likely you're overly trusting and unusually gullible.

So your claim that all (or "most") of the Thais in Thailand are degenerate gamblers have more credibility than my claim that they're not? And your evidence is what exactly? All the Thais that you know? Same as my evidence, all the Thais that I know. That pretty much explains it.

You're about the most gullible guy on this forum when it comes to Thai females, so don't even go there.

[thaiguzzi]

In answer to the OP's questions. Generally :-

1. No.

2. No.

3. No.

[gemguy]

I do not think gambling is a national past time per say...but there are a lot of illegal gambling dens exposed all too often and seemingly everywhere.

They have discussed having legal gambling here in Thailand many times but so far we do not see government sanctioned legal gambling.

I surmise the police like it to be illegal so they can force their hand and milk the illegal gambling dens to pay them a lot of money...that never gets declared

http://www.havocscope.com/gambling-in-thailand/

This post may give you some idea of how much gambling does go on in Thailand.

Cheers

Edited December 16, 2015 by gemguy

[louse1953]

Yes,that's all we do, 24/7 in Issan.The rest of the country is gambling free,so make sure your girl doesn't speak Lao,issan or Khymer and you should be safe.

[ableguy]

This thread makes pathetic reading, have you guys nothing better to do than slag each other off ?

Gambling can be addictive to any nationality, and for sure is to some Thais, I have read harrowing stories of gambling debts being passed on to the families of a deceased gambler. Same goes for drugs, use your head when courting a Thai lady. And not the one at the end of the trouser snake, the one on your shoulder.