Restaurants warned: no alcohol after 2 am

PHUKET: Restaurants, as well as pubs and nightclubs, must stop selling alcohol after 2 am or face losing their licenses for good, Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi warned today. “If any restaurants disobey, I will stop them selling alcohol permanently,” he told a monthly meeting of about 100 senior provincial officers at Phuket Provincial Meeting Hall. In a wide-ranging address, he said illegal gambling would also come under close scrutiny during football’s World Cup, which begins tomorrow. The governor emphasised that it was the province’s policy to fight a three-pronged battle against drugs, poverty and corruption. He said that shops caught selling cigarettes to children under 18 would be be fined the maximum of 2,000 baht. He also announced that he has ordered the closure for the whole of June of the Peep Inn “love hotel,” where three arrests were made late last month after police seized pornographic videos during a raid.