An Analysis of the Limitations of the Draft of the Entertainment Complex Business Act B.E. .... through the Lens of Legal Philosophy in the Natural Law School

Abstract

Currently, there has been ongoing debate and questioning regarding the appropriateness of the existence of casinos. In many countries, including Thailand, casinos are illegal as they are often viewed as hubs of vice and money laundering, posing a threat to public order and morality. Conversely, some countries legally recognize and accept the presence of casinos, such as the Macau Special Administrative Region of China and the Republic of Singapore. In Thailand, although casinos are still prohibited under the Gambling Act B.E. 2478 (1935), there has been an initiative to legalize casinos through the drafting of the Entertainment Complex Business Act B.E. ....

However, legalizing casinos raises important questions concerning the ethical, social, and legal appropriateness of such legislation. For this reason, the authors have adopted the philosophical perspectives of the natural law school, which emphasizes that true law must be based on justice and morality, to analyze this issue through the views of three major philosophers: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Thomas Aquinas, and Lon L. Fuller. The authors consider that each philosopher lived in different eras with distinct social contexts, which would naturally influence their perspectives on casinos or gambling. Their philosophical ideas are applied to evaluate the legitimacy of casinos under the draft of the Entertainment Complex Business Act B.E. .... in order to answer the article’s key question of whether the existence of casinos under the draft law is appropriate, and what necessary limitations or amendments are required to make it consistent with the philosophical views discussed.