Poi Pet Lures Thai Lottery Gamblers

[george]

CASINO SCRAMBLE

Poi Pet lures Thai lottery gamblers

Bookies open shop in border town as Chamlong again presses for a ban

The two-week suspension of the national two- and three-digit lottery has seen black-market bookies catering to Thai punters at dens in Cambodia's Poi Pet border casinos.

Thai underground lottery bookies are opening facilities for Thai punters in legal casinos across the border.

Immigration police at Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaew said around 4,500 Thais entered Cambodia at Poi Pet on Saturday alone - a number substantially greater than the daily average.

The influx was partially a resulted of many gambling dens in Bangkok being closed in a series of police raids.

Long queues choked immigration checkpoints yesterday.

The situation could have been worse. Police said if a new immigration office had not opened yesterday processing times would have been much longer.

There are now nine casinos and several small gambling dens operating at Poi Pet.

Thai bookies operate in those dens. They accept bets from Thai punters and use runners and computers to cope with the business, police said.

Staff working for 10 big bookies occupied many rooms in hostels operated by two major dens.

Another 15 bookies are expected to arrive at Poi Pet as the date for the regular draw of the two- and three-digit lottery nears.

The official lottery would have been held on December 1.

Immigration processing took longer than normal because police searched travellers for documents containing details of betting.

Meanwhile, Chamlong Sri-muang issued an eight-point statement explaining why the government should not hurry a legal amendment to legitimise the State two- and three-digit lottery.

He said rushing legislative approval for the game would ultimately give legitimacy to the Thaksin Shinawatra government's decision to introduce the tickets.

Chamlong asked the Surayud Chulanont government and the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) to scrutinise the legislation over a one-month period.

Prime Minister Surayud will push for the legislation to be pushed through all three readings in one NLA session.

Chamlong's eight-point statement noted lotteries were against the government's policy to embrace the sufficiency economy. It added resuming the lottery was tantamount to an amnesty for the Thaksin government's unlawful introduction of the game.

Campaign for Popular Demo-cracy secretary-general Suriyasai Katasila criticised Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula for his public statements about the lottery.

He said the minister's comments about the resumption of the game after 15 days showed the Cabinet's complete control of the NLA.

Suriyasai said the issue was too important to be decided by a few.

Public hearings were required and should take between five months to a year.

--The Nation 2006-11-27