For most of the coronavirus pandemic, Pattaya bars either shut down or operating with only a few walk-in customers have gone online, live-streaming dancing dollies in hopes of earning virtual “drinks” from lonely overseas foreigners. Pattaya police finally wised up to it.
On June 23, officers raided a closed “gentlemen’s club” on Thappraya Soi 15 where 29 Thai women and a foreign man were live-streaming to YouTube. While police said the PG-rated show wasn’t illegal, putting 30 people in one small area was a violation of the emergency decree’s prohibitions against group gatherings.
It didn’t take crack detectives to find the offenders. The gaggle of go-go girls was clearly visible on YouTube. They were shaking their tails in skimpy clothes, begging for foreign men unable to visit Thailand to tip by sending 150 each for a drink the ladies may not actually have imbibed.
Live-streaming exploded over the past year-plus, as the coronavirus pandemic shut down bars and tossed bargirls out of work. Even when small venues on Soi 6 and South Pattaya reopened, the webcams kept running, often leaving the few customers venturing into the bars..
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