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🗓️ November 8 2025 — A quiet legal shift
Today the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (No. 2) B.E. 2568 (2025) officially came into effect.
It was published in the Royal Gazette on 9 September 2025 (document 83910) and became law 60 days later — today.
This new Act repeals the old 1972 Revolutionary Council Order No. 253, which for 53 years had banned alcohol sales between 2 PM and 5 PM nationwide.
That order no longer exists in Thai law.
⚖️ What the new Act does (and does not do)
It does not set any new hours for selling or drinking alcohol.
It does not create any new fines or penalties.
It transfers all authority over alcohol hours to the Minister of Public Health (MOPH) under Section 28.
Section 28 (translation): “The Minister of Public Health, with approval of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee, may issue notifications prescribing times, places, or conditions for alcohol sales.”
From now on, only the MOPH can change, extend, or abolish the sales windows by publishing a new notification.
No Cabinet or Parliament vote is needed.
🕰️ Why the old hours are still being used
Thailand’s current practice (11:00–14:00 and 17:00–24:00) comes from a June 23 2025 notification signed by then-Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
That notification explicitly stated its authority as follows:
“By virtue of the power vested under Section 4 and Section 5 of the Revolutionary Council Order No. 253 (1972) concerning the control of the sale of alcoholic beverages...”
This line directly tied her order to the 1972 military decree — not to any Act of Parliament.
When Parliament later repealed that decree through the new 2025 Act, the June 23 notification lost its legal foundation.
Legally, it no longer exists.
In practice, however, police and provincial officers are still enforcing it to avoid a vacuum until the Ministry of Public Health issues a replacement.
So, the same hours remain in effect by custom — not by law.
📜 Where 1972 was repealed
The repeal is written clearly in Section 3 of the new Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (No. 2) B.E. 2568 (2025):
“The Revolutionary Council Order No. 253 (B.E. 2515 [1972]), dated 31 December B.E. 2515, concerning the control of the sale of alcoholic beverages, shall be repealed.”
(Royal Gazette No. 139, Part 83 Kor, p.3 – Published 9 Sept 2025 – Effective 8 Nov 2025)
ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/documents/83910.pdf
That single line officially ends the legal basis for the 2–5 PM sales ban that had been in force since 1972.
🗞️ Why the headlines sound different
Several international outlets — The Nation, SCMP, Bloomberg, Business Today, and Maeil Business Daily — reported today that drinkers can now be fined 10 000 baht drinking 2-5 pm under “the new law.
That in my opinion is incorrect. I understand, I’m marching to a different drummer. 🥳
Those penalties come from the original 2008 Act (Alcoholic Beverage Control Act No. 1), not from the law that took effect today and is only location based on drinking in a temple, or a school as a example. Nothing on drinking between 2 to 5 pm
The paradox that makes this whole story so baffling.
For 53 years (1972 – 2025) the Revolutionary Council Order No. 253 governed sales hours. It only restricted sellers, never drinkers. The 2008 Act kept the same structure: fines for people who drink in prohibited places (temples, government offices, schools, etc. - but nothing about time-of-day consumption.
So in half a century, there isn’t a single recorded case of anyone being fined just for drinking between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. – because no such offence ever existed.
https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/tha155097.pdf#:~:text=Section%2031,relevant%20to%2 0the%20mixing%20of
Now that Parliament has repealed the 1972 order through the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (No. 2), even that framework is gone. Yet major outlets suddenly warn that customers will be arrested for having a beer at 2:05 p.m.?
It’s pure herd reporting — one outlet misreads a headline, and everyone else copies it. Had they opened the actual Act, they’d have seen what it really says:
no time-of-day penalties for drinkers,
no new fines,
power now sits with the Minister of Public Health to issue future notices.
The new Act does not mention 2-5 pm fines at all or set hours.
🧩 What comes next
The ball is now in the Ministry of Public Health’s court.
They can issue a new Section 28 notification any day to set modern hours or lift the 2–5 PM restriction for good.
Until then, Thailand continues under a rule whose legal foundation no longer exists — a “zombie rule” still walking.
💬 Open discussion
I’m not a lawyer — this is my opinion based on official Thai sources and the Royal Gazette.
But I welcome anyone, especially Thai legal experts, to point out where this interpretation might be wrong.
If the new law (effective today) has no hours and no penalties, and the June 23 notification was based on a 1972 decree now repealed by Parliament —
what, exactly, are we still enforcing? In the meantime don’t drink from 2-5 pm cause you should follow the zombie rule, till told different.
📎 Sources
Royal Gazette Document 83910 (9 Sept 2025) | Ministry of Public Health | The Nation Thailand, SCMP, Bloomberg, Business Today, Maeil Business Daily
Disclaimer: I’m not a Thai lawyer — this is an independent opinion based on public documents and Thai media sources.
