Gambling in Thailand, Jeny Tianposuwan, Thaksin Returns, and John McBeth Sucks
I apologize for the late post but I’ll explain why in a moment. As I was cruising my favorite blogs I ran across something The Asian Sweetheart wrote about this blog.
Actually, that shot came to my attention from The Farang blog. Does every farang in Thailand have a blog where they talk about bar girls? Anyway, credit where credit is due. I did happen upon it first over there when I was searching for more on her.
The reason this caught my attention - other than mentioning my blog, khob khun krab - is that I don’t really believe it to be accurate. If anything I feel I’ve spent far more pixels discussing non-bar girls. But perception and reality can often become confused when filtered through our own perceptions. I went back and looked at my posts to see if I might have strayed from what I thought I was writing.
First post I guess the closest I came to writing about bar girls was mentioning a strange girl I met in a nightclub.
Second post jokingly described hansum man syndrome but I don’t think that is specific to bar girl interactions.
Third post discussed why farang men have a hard time meeting farang women in the West and why they’re prone to be attracted to Asian women. I’ll admit I did mention that farangs are more likely to meet bar girls on their first trips to the LOS but that was a brief aside to a column otherwise about meeting Thai women in general.
Fourth post had no commentary and was a faux magazine cover for a fictional Bar Girl Weekly
And my last post was about having confidence to approach women and being selective about the women you allow into your life.
Okay, so barring a potentially tasteless joke I pretty much have stayed well clear of the topic of experiences with bar girls. I’m open to anybody who wants to explain a different read on my posts but I don’t think I dwell on the subject of the naughty nightlife in Thailand. I mean, you can’t ignore that a lot offarangs get sucked into it so mentioning it in passing or how other points you’re making relate to those guys seems more like acknowledging reality rather than having a blog devoted to bar girls.
That said, I have nothing against bar girls. I would be a liar if I said I’ve never visited places like Nana or Soi Cowboy but I certainly don’t view those experiences as typical of Thailand or allow the it to dominate what I write about here. It simply is what is and it would be equally dishonest to completely ignore that aspect of the country.
Anyway the other reason I decided to postpone this post was that I was working on two different posts which I didn’t get around to finishing. One was about some of the bizarre women I’ve met using an online dating site and the second was about being drugged while I in Nana Plaza. Since one post focused on the fringe element of supposedly normal Thai women and the other about having a bar girl help me out when I was unable to help myself I thought the hypocrisy of claiming not to write about bar girls in the same post as the one where I told these tales would be too thick.
So I’ll save both posts for a later date and instead write about something which is more topical. It was brought to my attention that PMSamak is a reader of this blog. Last week I wrote:
How about a casino resort? Ban Thai nationals but let in tourists. You would attract a lot of well heeled gamblers who are currently flying to Macao.
And this week, PM Samak announced that he would back plans to introduce legalized gambling in Thailand. Coincidence?
I know that many people are opposed to gambling on moral or ethical grounds and others fear that it will create a society of people living paycheck to paycheck as they pump all of their money into casinos but I think many fears tend to be overblown. In the West problem gamblers account for anywhere from 2% - 8% of all people who place wagers. The range is based on which research report you read and what point of view they’re trying to promote. Of course, there’s no guarantee that those numbers will hold in Thailand but it seems like a relatively confined problem. My personal feeling is that it is a form of entertainment that can be enjoyed by responsible adults.
My biggest concern is if opening up gambling only applies to things like a lottery or allowing sports betting. Those tend to be the easiest forms of gambling for people who are usually the least able to afford it which is why I’ve never been a big fan of governments running lotteries. Across the globe countries outlaw gambling but then sell lottery tickets to their own citizens which says to me that they have no problem with people talking a 20,000,000:1 shot but loathe letting someone take a 2% disadvantage at the blackjack tables. Just goes to show how much the government really cares about people losing their money.
If Thailand really wants to boost its tourism industry they need something like a resort casino. And as much I hate a nanny state I would only partially cringe if they did as other countries do and ban wagering by locals. Lots of new jobs, lots of tourists with expendable income, lots of new opportunities.
Blog Post of the Week
Nothing really jumped out at me this week. Sorry.
Thai Girl of the Week
This week’s lucky winner is Jeny Tianposuwan. She’s a Thai actress who has moved to the US but still has many business interests in Thailand including a non-fat yogurt business. Sounds like the perfect woman. She can afford to keep me in the style I’ve grown accustomed to.
Top Stories of the Week
Well I guess the big ones are Thaksin returning to Thailand and the gambling story previously mentioned. As everybody and their mother has covered the return of Thaksin there’s not much I can add.
I did want to comment on an offensive article written by John McBeth in The Nation. He seems to slam every aspect of American life and culture. Mostly it’s rhetoric and a bunch of crap arguments which disgrace every other journalist who writes for the paper. I’m not defending America as much as I’m offended that a newspaper would bother to print something this bad even as an editorial.
Take, for example, the game that stops the nation. It’s not good enough that they call it the “Super Bowl”. Oh no, the commentators and hype merchants then have to refer to it as the “world championship”.
Is it true? Sure. But hasn’t every drunk in a pub blurted out that one when the odd American stops in? This is the best a so-called journalist can work up? Will The Nation allow equal time to Americans who can say all Brits have bad teeth? Will they give a Frenchmen the chance to slag off on Germans? It’s just so pointless to use these type of ignorant, bigoted arguments to try and make an intelligent point.
The US media could help remove this Us versus Them mentality by improving its coverage of a world its country has so much influence over, instead of continuing its ever-growing fascination with misbehaving “celebrities”.
Does this guy even understand the meaning of the word irony? He writes a piece that pits the rest of the world against the US and then calls on the US media not to take an Usversus Them mentality.
I can’t wait to see more from this guy. Should be enjoyable.
Final Thought of the Week
Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men. - Kin Hubbard
Housekeeping
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The views expressed in this post may or may not reflect the actual views of any real or imaginary persons, living or dead. Nothing in this post, including this disclaimer, should be construed as factual or even informational. The author is quite often wrong and is prone to pathological lying. Under no circumstances should readers rely on any financial, medical, legal, relationship, or auto repair advice communicated in this or any other post on this website.
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