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Thailand’s deputy prime minister has confirmed the government will discuss legalisation of online gambling, following comments by influential former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in support of reform.

Deputy Prime Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong, who also serves as digital economy minister, said on Monday (January 6) that a formal assessment of legalising online gambling is due in the first quarter of 2025, the Bangkok Post reported.

Prasert said any legalisation of online gambling requires “synchronising” of work between ministries on the amendment of associated laws.

Passage of the amendments and the formation of a once unthinkable online gambling market in Thailand “would be good for the economy”, he said, citing the volume of underground online gambling spent in the nation and widespread crime emanating from these channels.

Prasert’s comments followed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the father of current Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, intervening in the growing debate on illegal gambling. Thaksin said on Sunday that online gambling regulation would have economic and social benefits.

Thaksin’s suggestion was the latest example of a polarising former leader who pre-empted government policy statements.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Paetongtarn waved away the concerns of critics who say Thaksin exercises undue power over her government, but she did not mention her father’s comments on online gambling reform.

Since the National Anti-Corruption Commission acknowledged recommendations in October on preventing associated corruption, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has been responsible for coordinating the amendment of antiquated anti-gambling legislation and testing public opinion.

But Thaksin’s comments, and Prasert’s apparent response to them, are the first hard indicators that the Thai government is seriously considering legalisation as part of a wider carrot-and-stick strategy to combat the flourishing underground sector.

The digital ministry is set to oversee a national committee whose powers would centralise and streamline the government’s enforcement and legislative response to illegal online gambling and linked criminal activity in all its forms, including payment channels.

Academic and other commentators have suggested over the years that liberalisation could strike a blow against illegal online gambling by directing players to safer gaming environments and raising significant tax revenue.

These efforts rarely progressed to a governmental forum, suggesting that current momentum is being boosted by strong political support for legalisation of land-based casinos as part of integrated resorts, a maximum of seven licences for which are expected to be made law later this year.

However, the enduring economic and law-and-order impacts of online gambling and cyber-scamming precincts in nearby Cambodia, Laos and war-ravaged Myanmar, often supplied with slave labour trafficked across the Thai border, may have forced the government to reconsider its exclusively punitive policies on online gambling.

Corruption or alleged corruption of senior and local Thai police by online gambling interests, including the nation’s former top two police officials, or by human traffickers, may also have weakened the credibility of hardliners who have resisted reform.