Thailand’s government says it is confident that the draft bill on entertainment complexes will pass through both houses of parliament to become law in 2025, possibly as early as mid-year.
Speaking with Bloomberg News, Secretary-General Prommin Lertsuridej said, “The law should be passed in six months from now at the earliest, so it should be next year to start.” Several steps would need to be completed upon passing of the bill before casinos became reality, he added.
As previously reported, the draft bill is expected to be approved by Cabinet before the end of this year, leaving it to pass through the House of Representatives and then the Upper House before becoming law. Bloomberg News noted that each house typically takes months to pass a bill across three required readings.
Prommin also confirmed there was no shortage of operators to have expressed interest, pointing to “big investors with world-class experience. So many people have tried to talk with us,” he said.
Among those to have expressly shown interest in Thailand are Las Vegas Sands, Genting Singapore and MGM Resorts – the latter recently revealing that any bid it makes for a Thai IR license would be done through its Macau subsidiary, MGM China.
The draft bill on entertainment complexes outlines plans to develop large-scale entertainment venues to be operated by private companies with a minimum paid-up capital of at least TBH 10 billion (US$285 million).
It has been recommended that the gaming areas in legalized integrated resorts should not exceed 5% of the total project area, with the remainder to be utilized for complementary hotel and entertainment offerings. The bill also calls for the projects to be joint investments between the government and private operators, which could follow a concession model similar to that utilized in Macau.
While the exact number and locations of such IRs has yet to be determined, the most recent reports suggest five license may be issued including two in Bangkok.
A recent note from Maybank claimed that Thailand could open its first IRs as early as 2029, which would result in the Southeast Asian nation realizing legal casino gaming ahead of Japan where MGM Resorts International’s US$10 billion IR development in Osaka isn’t slated for completion until at least 2030.
