By Panu Wongcha-um
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's political heavyweight Thaksin Shinawatra believes Southeast Asia's second largest economy should push to legalise online gambling, which he said could net the government as much as 100 billion baht ($2.89 billion) in annual revenues.
Although without a formal role in government, the former prime minister, 75, is one of the most influential figures in Thai politics and is widely seen as a power centre behind the premiership of his 38-year-old daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Speaking at an event in Bangkok late on Monday, just hours after the Thai cabinet approved a draft law to legalise casinos, Thaksin said the government was coming up with ways to control access to, and tax revenue from, online gambling.
"Online gambling has two to four million Thai users with savings of 300 billion baht and gains and losses of about 500 billion per year," said Thaksin.
"If we can tax 20% ... we would get more than 100 billion per year," he said.
While most forms of gambling are illegal in Thailand, it is hugely popular and successive governments led or backed by Thaksin have pushed to legalise it to create jobs and boost tourism, arguing huge sums of money are being lost that can be turned into state revenue.
The government was working on an identification system to control access to online gaming that would prevent underage use and allow the monitoring of gambling addicts, Thaksin said.
"We would have like a passport to control who can play," he said, without elaborating.
Thaksin also made a push for Thailand's financial institutions to be more open to cryptocurrency, citing incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's pro-crypto stance, including his appointment of crypto deregulation advocate Paul Atkins as the head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
He said the Thai's SEC need to have more digital approach, like "allowing trade of stablecoin, or coin that are backed by assets".
The Thai government is already looking to allow using crypto as a form of payment, with the resort island of Phuket a possible site for a pilot, he said.
"There will be no risk, it is just another currency in the world," Thaksin said.
($1 = 34.6500 baht)