Gambling and casinos in Phuket

Gambling and casinos in Phuket

There are a lot of different entertainments in Phuket: beach holidays, religious and historical sights, shopping, night clubs – and this is not a full list. But some tourists, to whom this may not seem enough, can search for venturous entertainments, such as gambling. They start looking for gambling houses and casinos on the island and wondering if Thai gambling differs from traditional one. Here we will tell whether there is a casino in Phuket and what is the Thai roulette.

Gambling in Phuket

In fact, Thai law prohibits gambling, so there is no legal casino in the country. But some businessmen find ways to get rich, so tourists have two ways to play gambling in Thailand: go to the nearest casino in neutral territory or find an illegal casino on the island.

As the gambling business is very profitable, there are quite a lot of gambling clubs in Phuket which work illegally, hiding from police. Despite the fact that the activities of such institutions are not advertised and it is not easy to get there, the majority of visitors are tourists.

You can find out where to play gambling and how to get there from other tourists who have already been there or from hotel staff.

Most illegal gambling houses are located in nightclubs or at small hotels. There you can play only traditional card games, including poker.

There are also large illegal casinos in Phuket, such as Thung Thong and Tiger Casino, whose owners somehow managed to establish contacts with local authorities. Here you can play baccarat, game slots, poker, some specific games which are unfamiliar to foreigners (Tai sai, Pok daeng, Sip them, Fun tan) and the Thai roulette.

The Thai Roulette Rules

The Thai Roulette differs from the classical roulette. In a classic roulette the ball rotates in a circle with black and red numbers and you can bet on both numbers and color, but there are other rules in the Thai Roulette.

In the Thai Roulette the drum looks like a large canvas with numbers written in the recesses. There are red and black numbers from 0 to 9 on the canvas. A large ball is launched into the drum, which falls into one of the recesses and determines the number-winner. A player can bet on one or several numbers, bets on color are not accepted here. There is a separate table with numbers for bets, on which each player puts his money. If you guessed the figure, your rate increases 10 times. If one of your three numbers falls out, the bet increases 3 times. If you bet on 4 numbers and one of them falls, then the bet increases 2 times. Experienced players advice to watch the game before betting, so that to notice which way the ball drops more often and then bet on the corresponding numbers.

Casino in the neutral zone

If you are afraid to visit an illegal casino, but you want to have fun and enjoy gambling, you can visit a casino in the neutral zone at the borders with Laos or Cambodia. Many hotels even offer a transfer in this direction.

As gambling business always brings much money to the country's budget, the Thai government is thinking about legalizing gambling following the example of Macau and Singapore. Such a decision will help to increase the number of tourists and create new workplaces. But now this idea is only at the project stage and it is planned to legalize the gambling business only in Pattaya. But who knows, maybe in a few years you will be able to stay at some large casino hotel complex in Phuket and enjoy your holiday.