Sikhottabong district authorities have shut down several illegal game shops after finding out that they were offering gambling activities.
The Head of Sikhottabong District Office, Mr Khampheuan Keomany, said on Wednesday that the district governor had signed an order to close down five game shops in the district, which had been operating slot machines and allowing children to play them.
The imported machines require players to buy a coin to start the game. If a player wins a game, he or she will get money in return.
“Our policy is not to close game shops; we're only shutting down those that have slot machines. We're not ordering all the game shops in the district to cease business,” he told Vientiane Times.
He insisted that game shops that have only computer and CD games could remain open for business as usual, as long as they complied with the rules.
He said the district authorities considered games to be a form of entertainment for children and helped to develop their mental acuity, so they did not intend to close them down.
Mr Khampheuan said the operation of slot machines was illegal and the authorities would not encourage children to become involved with gambling of any kind. “If children get addicted to gambling, they may become thieves in order to get the money they need to play the games,” he said.
An official from the Sikhottabong Information and Culture Office, Mr Khamlay Inkhavilay, who joined a team of cultural officials in closing down the game shops, told Vientiane Times that the officials had seized 14 slot machines as evidence.
“We went to seven shops; five only had slot machines in operation, so we ordered them to close permanently. In two other shops we found both computer games and slot machines, so we only confiscated the slot machines,” he said.
He said that most of the game shops that had been closed were located around Nongtaeng village. They were habitual gathering places for youngsters and the district authorities had been keeping a close watch on them.
Mr Khamlay said he found that many children played the machines on a regular basis in an attempt to recoup their losses.
Mr Khamlay also said the team of cultural officials advised the owners of these shops to open only from 9:30 am to 12 noon and in the afternoon from 2 pm to 4:50 pm, to discourage students from playing during school hours after entering the shops before school or in their lunch break.
A lot of Lao business people closed down their businesses because of the casino. If you have money, anything is possible, you know how corruption our country is.
