Remember the entwined history of gambling and slavery

Those who argue that Thailand needs casinos in order to gain foreign money through taxation are either self-serving or looking at the issue from only one side.

Gambling was one of the major causes of slavery in Siam in the old days. In the early Ayutthaya Period, the people of states defeated in war were rounded up – sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands – and brought back to Siam as slaves for the king.

Slavery took on a different form during the Rattanakosin Period. Addiction to opium and gambling left countless people indebted and enslaved. It was lucky that King Rama V’s abolishment of slavery was accepted without bloodshed, given the catastrophic civil war in the US at approximately the same time.

Since most Thais have a proclivity for gambling today, legalising casinos would only create more problems for society.

Vint Chavala

Bangkok