She lost 800,000 THB at Cards!

[chelsea]

I go along with Ozuncle here re the money. The only thing you could do for her if you wanted to help would perhaps help her with their utilities bills and perhaps some rent (for a short time) and a ticket home for her daughter.
But in saying, that make sure it is you that makes the payment direct to the accounts that she owes.

If you do not the only thing she will do is gamble the money away. I would advise her to send her daughter away for a few weeks and see if she can sort things out one way or the other, without the added pressure of worrying about her daughter and her whereabouts.

Do not even go anywhere near giving her the odd 20,000, because if you do it will never end.
There is a a saying that you have to sometime be cruel to be kind, and I think that really applies here unfortunately.
I for one hope she can get through this, but giving her money is not going to help her at all as I can assure you she will use it to gamble again.
Gambling is much the same as drugs and booze, once in your blood is very hard to go back to a normal life.

[Jaime]

WALK AWAY!!

[charlesh]

Cut All Ties (exscuse the pun) and RUN Away - wing wing mak mak.
There is something smelly in the state of Denmark methinks!
She would b the only Thai here who does not have relo's to help out including looking after the offspring.
Has been said - soemetimes U have to be cruel to be kind!
The hardest lessons are self taught.
I lent money 15 years ago and am still waiting for it. I also now regard these loans as gifts and if U have the werewithal of Bill Gates perhaps U too can be a philanthropist of renown.
What with the recession U will have a queue 100Km long leading to your front door.
Charles H

[margaretcarnes]

Unfortunately I've known several farang, including close friends, whose Thai wives have pulled this stunt. In most cases the gambling was reality. In ALL cases there was a Thai husband or boyfriend in the background pulling the strings, and maybe a lot of the debt was actually theirs.
True, as already pointed out it is easy for Thais to escape to their villages, families, or wherever (where they will probably continue to gamble anyway.)
Any signs of reluctance to run and hide from the 'situation' indicate IMO that there is another Thai half around locally.

[nevets]

im thinking 800,000 is a sum a retired visa holder would have about the place ,does she think you are retired to come up with that exact figiure ?
dont give any more money .

[sargeant]

Just my take on this some posters say it’s a scam and it may well be but as she has admitted to playing cards /gambling I think it is probably genuine.
The high figure is something no one should dismiss as not possible trust me 800,000 is quite easy to achieve not necessarily lost at the casino.
I would estimate that casino losses probably only make up 25% of it the other 75% is made up of interest on the money borrowed at 20% a month (normal in Thailand)

1 200000 240000
2 240000 288000
3 288000 345600
4 345600 414720
5 414720 497664
6 497664 597196.8
7 597196.8 716636.2
8 716636.2 859963.4

A mere 8 months
200,000 baht is easily lost I personally know 2 farangs in this town whose wives gambled one lost a business and a bungalow the other lost a 3 month old fully paid up pickup in one night
I have suffered this myself but my advice to the op is listen to the advice given if she is not your wife walk strongly determinedly and quickly away DO NOT LOOK BACK

[Randy Cornhole]

Good advice from all, but as we know our weak western hearts are easily captured and turned inside out. I wish the OP well...

[nevets]

I second that Randy

[Frost]

Also my opinion.

No mafia would credit to a "normal girl" 800 000 baht for gambling.
This story smells very fishy..... I dont believe this story, and as others told already:

if her life or life of her daughter is in danger is easy to escape somewhere....

Many places in thailand have htels where she can work, so be careful with this story....

[Korkenzieher]

I know of 2 cases personally - one where a girl was scammed at cards by other local girls in HH of about 200,000 baht. She was playing with money she had, but they cleaned her out mercilessly. She would quite happily lose 10k, then go and get another 15K figuring her luck had to change sometime, and never quite realising that she was being cheated, and didn't really understand enough about the game anyway. The other was a girl who lost several millions, again probably being ripped off. She was lucky in that she had property she was able to sell. She clearly had to have been extended credit by someone to do that, quite possibly on the basis of the property being collateral. On neither occasion was I asked to help, and I know both cases are genuine and were independently verified. The second girl did sell the property (about June this year) to clear her debts - a total loss (i am led to believe) of over 8 MILLION baht!

So to cut a long story short, it is quite possible that the girls losses were genuine, and also that she probably has no way to pay it back except through the generosity of strangers. It may not be so easy for her to just pack up and leave - there may be other factors such as they know where she is from, or agencies are involved that could trace her with relative ease, or pressure other members of her family (which must exist somewhere).

Up to you whether you get involved of course, but I would follow the general advice here and walk away. You have more to lose than just money, by getting involved.

[Calvin]

Thank you for the input everyone.

I'm told she racked up the debt over a 6 month period and owes to friends, family and more than one 'mafia'. No, I won't be coughing up any more loot.

[margaretcarnes]

Yes Frost - I think Korky and Sarge have made good points there. It may be difficult to imagine anyone advancing hundreds of thousands, but its often the huge interest which rocks up the debt - not necessarily the initial outlay.
With Thais theres also the 'tomorrow will look after itself' attitude, which applies to gambling as well as most other things. They will go pray to a Banyan tree and buy more lottery tickets, which will win of course, because they have prayed to the Banyan tree, so tomorrow the debt will be cleared.
Except of course it won't. Any lottery win would be gambled as well.
Cynical? Maybe. Reality? Sadly yes. Its the way of addicted gamblers anywhere, but things which are banned are always more attractive.

[Spitfire]

With Thais theres also the 'tomorrow will look after itself' attitude, which applies to gambling as well as most other things.

Very true Margaret! This is the basic source/answer of/to many problems, situations or f*** ups that appear in many areas of life here. We could get a whole thread out of what causes them to think like that(but must have been done already).

BTW, you, cynical? Never!

[charlesh]

Why single out the Thais for this "tidak apa" approach? Malay equivalent for Mai pen rai and in Oz "she'll be right mate".
I guess this head in the sand philosophy can also be directed at the drongos now running (ruining) many countries with their gambling of the national asset hardly ever their own. The latest drongo being the former head of Nasdaq and his $ 5 Billion pyramid scheme. Apparently sucked a lot of "gamblers" in also.
Charles H

[cookmanchef]

I love gambling!! Especially if I don't have to use my own money.

My mate Gordon in London is the same, but that jammy bugger gets to use the money of 30 million people, what damage could I do with that in Ladbrokes!!!