The city’s main contract bridge club has now been licensed by the Contract Bridge League of Thailand to play at Meatstuff, a popular retail and restaurant facility just off Thepprasit Road. The non profit-making club meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 12.30 pm and attracts both expats and visitors for duplicate games. Further details are available at https://www.bridgewebs.com
Bridge was introduced into Thailand with Royal support over a hundred years ago. At first the game was limited to Bangkok, but local clubs now exist in several tourist-associated cities including Chiang Mai and Phuket. Pattaya bridge club was founded in 1994 and has held weekly sessions ever since apart from the Covid-related interruptions. The club was raided by the Department of Provincial Administration in 2016 after a misunderstanding that gambling was occurring, but no prosecution followed. Club founder Barry Kenyon commenting on the worldwide publicity at the time, said, “For about a week, we were the most famous card players in the world.”