Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Gambling Den Busted By Police

Everybody knows that the police here in Thailand love to arrest bored housewives playing 5-baht poker. (The police think that they should be saving their money for the national lottery, of course.) But actually, gambling in certain instances is quite legal in Thailand, for instance, it is legal to gamble on whether or not your barfine turns out to be a starfish or not. Obviously, gambling on a grand scale (such as buying a palm oil plantation or a shrimp farm or a Gogo bar) is perfectly legitimate. In addition, gambling where there is no chance of winning (such as buying a truck for your girlfriend's family in the hope that they will start working on their own, or buying 3000 karats of rubies to take back to London to sell) is all acceptable as well.

So the next time somebody tells you that gambling is illegal in Thailand, remind them of the Dutch guy who built his $1 million mansion on land sold to him by a Thai guy who knew that in 10 years there would be a 6-lane highway going through his living room, or the Korean tourist in the hospital with a broken pelvis because he gambled that the green "walking guy" light meant that it was safe to cross the street. Heck: Just mention your last visit to a restaurant where you gambled and lost, when you ordered steak with mushroom sauce and wound up getting a steak with tomato sauce.

Thailand: It's all one big gamble.

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