Phuket cops raid nightclub gambling den
Phuket cops raided a nightclub gambling den in the island province’s main city district in the early hours of yesterday morning. Phuket City Police sent an officer to monitor the situation at the nightclub near Surin Circle (known as Fountain Circle) on Rassada Road in Talad Yai market.
The officer informed his team that people were gambling at the club. The police then busted 14 people on the third floor of the club’s building.
The officers arrested the gamblers, and seized gambling items, including playing cards. They then brought the gamblers to Phuket City Police Station.
One gambler faces charges for operating illegal gambling. The other 13 gamblers face charges of joining in illegal gambling. All the gamblers admitted to the charges, Thai media reported.
This news comes just a week after cops swooped on a major gambling den in another Thai party hotspot, Pattaya. The den had about 360 million baht in circulation.
Officers from the Police Cyber Taskforce raided a luxury condominium in Chon Buri’s Bang Lamung district and arrested four suspects, one man, and three women. The police confiscated two laptops, four desktop screens, three smartphones, and other appliances worth 100,000 baht.
Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society says more than 1,500 people were arrested in 2022 for online fraud and gambling. The Cybercrime Control Committee announced the statistics at its first meeting of the year.
Thailand‘s anti-gambling laws did not deter Thais from placing bets on the FIFA World Cup 2022. In fact, the Royal Thai Police made 12,245 gambling arrests between November 19 and December 18, 2022.
Police seized cash, houses, land, luxury vehicles and watches amassing a total value of 1.7 billion baht from illicit gamblers. The police estimated that Thais bet a whopping 11 billion baht in total on the World Cup’s 64 matches.
Nearly all forms of gambling are illegal in Thailand, apart from the government-sponsored lottery, according to the Gambling Act (1935).
