After decades of economic and political isolation, the Myanmar government is seeking to boost tourism and attract foreign investment, with a law legalising gambling.
“We haven’t issued any licences for casinos yet as it’s still considered a type of illegal gambling,” a director from the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism said recently. He added that the Ministry of Home Affairs is currently working on a gambling law.
His comments followed reports on social media in the country that three and four-star hotels along the borders were being allowed to operate foreigner-only casinos.
Although gambling remains illegal, some estimates suggest that around 70 per cent of Myanmar's adult population play illegal games based on Thailand's lottery and stock exchange, or place illicit bets on English football.
That translates into a huge loss of potential revenue for Myanmar, which lags far behind its Asian neighbours in terms of economic growth due to economic sanctions on the former military regime.
The possibility of legalised gambling in Myanmar was floated in the Myanmar Tourism Master Plan, which was published in 2013 and which envisions allowing casinos as part of an overall plan to attract around seven million tourists a year by 2020.
