Bear with me for just a minute while I explain the purpose of my communication. If my name doesn’t ring a bell I left the states for Thailand three years ago. Since then I have been living and working in Thailand.
I have owned a couple of small bars and brothels/strip clubs but nothing big time. More to pass the time than anything else.
The dollar has been steadily declining and the Thai Baht gaining over the past three years. 42 to the dollar when I got here now 30.
This doesn’t effect my day to day living because I am working for a Thai company and paid in Baht but it has effected my available investment dollars.
About three months ago the government announced that gambling would be made legal in some locations in Thailand. Last week the bids went out to selected individuals to open a casino in Pattaya. Pattaya is the largest whore house/Strip club in the world located 40 miles South of Bangkok.
The Eastern seaboard of Thailand is an industrial area. Thailand is the world third or fourth largest manufacturer of light trucks. Also the Eastern seaboard is an oil refining area much like South Texas. The area is exploding with oil and other economic activity.
The American Army built most of the Eastern seaboard during Vietnam. I live in an ocean side golf resort about 30 miles South of Pattaya.
The coming gambling/business/industrial boom is in it’s infancy. The prices are starting to climb in Pattaya as are the prices for girls and drinks. Two years ago in Pattaya you could have a great night out with a beautiful 20 year old tight bodied stripper including drinks, dinner and hotel, barfine and her charges for a $100. Now that is $200. Bangkok you can double that.
The town I live in has not been hit by this boom quite yet. It is only 60 miles away from Pattaya and has two good golf courses and is on the ocean. Condo prices go from $10,000 (one bedroom) in town to $150,000 for a three bedroom new ocean front location. The town also has western shopping and restaurants and excellent lo cost health care.
Pattaya has 100,000 hookers/dancers/bargirls and 100 strip clubs and 20,000 bars/brothels. The town I live in has 20 clubs mostly in a two street area.
I can afford to buy a couple but I want to buy the majority of the club oriented businesses. I want to do this so I can keep them clean and well managed (read busy). I want the girls happy and healthy and that is very possible with just a little more care than the average Thai spends on business maintenance.
I need some investors. A club costs about $35,000 and includes a bar, tables and 5 or 6 hotel rooms.
Doing business in Thailand is very much an old boys/old girls network. I have been here long enough to know the ins and outs of the business and where to find employees which is fast becoming the largest problem.
There are a number of things which make this an attractive and lucrative business proposition. This is a cash economy. Everything is paid for in cash. Condo, cell phone, utility bills, food bills, everything. A bar owner never needs a checking account. In fact people would look at you funny if you tried to pay for anything with a check. In three years here I have never paid for anything with a check.
I have a number of bank accounts, both in Thailand and Singapore and they are all handled with wire transfers and ATM cards.
When I was posting on here before it always seemed a shame to me that most of the dancers were cash heavy and let it slip through their fingers without ever having anything to show for some very good incomes.
Thai bar and strip club employees are different in most cases than Western ladies. There is a period where some of them realize their potential and want to maximize their earnings and during that time they are very similar to Western women. But the majority have one child and a farm that they want to secure with a Western husband and a Luke Krung (½-½) child. If I could put some of the stripperweb ladies in management positions in the clubs it would be a real novelty. They would make a fortune, tax free here, for just showing up at work and smiling. Thai women would love working for Western women. The sister thing. Success for the average Thai bar employee is getting married to a foreigner. The great majority do not want to move to the West. They are very family oriented and want to stay in Thailand so that usually means marriage to a retired froeigner who can stay here. This means one does see a lot of old guys with young women and children but that is tolerated well here.
My question is. Someone is going to make a heck of a lot of money here in the coming boom. Where do I find investors who have cash and would like to invest in a recreational venue that might not be quite mainstream but very lucrative. I of course would prefer female investors because it is a female dominated business but cash talks so anyone would be considered. Thai women actually run all the clubs anyway the men are more figureheads.



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