Open-ended prostitution as a skilful game of luck: opportunity, risk and security among tourist-oriented prostitutes in a Bangkok soi

Reports on the culture of "open-ended', tourism-oriented prostitution durings its heyday in the early 1980s, as it was observed in the hinterland of one of the major tourist entertainment areas in Bangkok. The paper captures the culture of tourist-oriented prostitution during a specific period of Thai history, contributing to the comparative study of prostitution in general and specifically to the study of relations between prostitution and society. Some of the more recent developments, on the background of the threat of AIDS, are briefly sketched out in the postscript. -from Author