As Thailand makes casinos legal for the first time in decades, Tawan Manakul argues that moral outrage misses the point
Gambling has been around as long as people have been drawn to then mysteries of chance.
Archaeologists have found dice and betting records in ruins from ancient Mesopotamia to China, reminders that we’ve always had an appetite for risk. Even the Greek word for justice, dike, comes from “to throw,” as in throwing dice.
But wherever gambling has existed, so have efforts to control or ban it. In ancient Egypt, habitual gamblers were sentenced to hard labour in the quarries. Similar prohibitions show up in the laws of China and Rome, and in religious texts such as the Talmud and the Qur’an. It’s an old tension: the pull to play versus the fear of what might happen if we do.
Thailand is now at a new crossroads in this age-old debate. After nearly a century of strict gambling laws, the government approved a controversial bill earlier this year to legalize casino operations. It’s a dramatic shift that has caught the attention of Thai social theorist Tawan Manakul, who describes himself as addicted to gambling (or at least the subject of gambling). For him, gambling isn’t just a personal habit; it’s an academic puzzle. He once went to a casino to play roulette purely to test his ideas, knowing full well he’d lose.
While teaching a course on public policy ethics, Manakul found himself digging through British parliamentary debates on gambling. He expected to find moral sermonizing or arguments about economic costs and benefits. What he found instead surprised him: over many decades British lawmakers have returned to the issue again and again, not to decide whether gambling is good or evil, but to build a framework of rights.
From this, Manakul draws three simple but radical conclusions. First, gambling shouldn’t be viewed as inherently evil. Second, people have a right to gamble. And third, that right can be limited if it causes real harm – to others or to oneself. “Policy decisions shouldn’t waste time debating whether gambling is a sin,” he writes. “They should focus on where to draw the line, based on actual risks and real contexts.”
Manakul points out the irony that banning gambling doesn’t make it go away; it just pushes it out of sight. A 2023 survey by Thailand’s Research Centre for Social Development found that more than half of the population had gambled that year, despite the ban. In Manakul’s view, that kind of gap between law and reality does more damage than gambling itself. He praises the British model for being more honest about people’s behaviour: when laws reflect what people actually do, they can protect rights and reduce harm more effectively. “Laws that clash with how people live,” he says, “just create new problems and undermine the system meant to protect us all.”
Still, he’s clear that recognizing gambling as a right doesn’t mean throwing open the doors to casinos on every street corner. Rights come with responsibilities. The goal is to find the balance: sometimes that might mean legalizing certain kinds of gambling to reduce the lure of the black market; sometimes it might mean stricter rules, or even new bans if the evidence shows that’s needed. The point, Manakul argues, is to treat gambling as a fact of life, and to shape policies that deal with it as it really is, not just as we fear it might be.
Original article (“จากเฮนรีที่ 8 สู่คาสิโนเสรี:ข้อถกเถียงเรื่องสิทธิและข้อจำกัดการเล่นพนันฉบับไม่เหยียด”) by Tawan Manakul first published in Thai on 2 May 2025.
It’s available here.
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