I'm standing by a sunlit bridge, in a dusty little town called Mae Sai, in the far north of Thailand. Across the River Sai is Burma. This could be any Thai border town, any day of the week, except the international traffic seems heavier than normal. And it is.

The reason lies several hundred miles to the southeast, in the Danglek mountains of the Thai-Cambodian border, where a bloody dispute, over ownership of a Hindu Temple, is throwing light on a bizarre aspect of life in Indochina: the huge casinos run by the Burmese junta.

Because gambling is heavily proscribed in Thailand, many Siamese punters slip across the nearest border to do it in less disapproving places. Until a few days ago that often meant a trip into laissez-faire Cambodia; now, with that frontier temporarily closed, even more Thais are heading north, for the many Burmese casino-resorts that abut the Siamese borderlands.

Along with the casinos, Mong La offered prostitution and transvestite cabarets

It seems to jar with most people's view of Burma, or Myanmar as we should now call it. An authoritarian junta, with little time for consumerism, ­ running casinos? But in the last decade, the Burmese authorities have allowed the construction of vast gambling meccas like Allure, Win-Win and the Paradise.
 
Situated in seedy frontier towns like Tachilek ­ just across the 'friendship' bridge from Mae Sai ­ these Vegas-like constructions boast all the usual casino amenities: slots, roulette, 24-hour bar staff. The success of the casinos has attracted ancillary vice; pirated DVDs are openly on sale; shops full of sex toys line the streets of Tachilek.

Nearly all the punters in these places are Thai, the main currency is the Thai baht, the principal builders of the resorts were Thai. But a major chunk of the profits ­ - many millions of dollars - goes to the supposedly blue-nosed Burmese government in their lonely new capital of Naypyidaw.
 
The history of the Burmese casinos is weird enough. The first of them sprang up in the Burmese hinterland that divides Thailand from China. This part of lawless northwest Burma is virtually autonomous: run by tribes like the Wa, Shan and Kachin, who have long profited from the heroin and methamphetamine trade of the Golden Triangle.

In the town of Mong La, the Wa built large casinos to attract eager gamblers from nearby China. Along with the casinos, Mong La offered other attractions: prostitution was rife, illegal animal products were traded, transvestite cabarets were very popular.

China forced the closure of the casinos after a Chinese bigwig lost a fortune

But two years ago the Chinese forced the closure of Mong La's casinos, after a Chinese bigwig lost a serious fortune. Not easily defeated, the Wa have now built 'ghost casinos' in the Burmese jungle, complete with baize tables and croupiers ­ but no customers. The realtime interiors of the casinos are beamed, via webcam, to online Chinese gamblers - who can thereby 'feel' they are playing in a proper casino.

In the meantime the Burmese generals had spotted an opportunity, and built their own gilded gambling dens. Back in Mae Sae the bridge to Tachilek is thronged with happy Thais, clutching their day-passports, which allow them 24 hours in the Burmese gambling palaces: where they can lose their baht at blackjack and baccarat, while barefoot local peasants tend the golf courses beyond.
 
Yet the lucky owners of the Tachilek resorts shouldn't count their gambling chickens just yet. According to rumours, the puritanical Burmese junta is planning a new casino resort, on the Andaman Sea. With a section for nudists. ·