Phuket police raid Blue Dragon Lottery scammers, as nationwide crackdown continues
Police raided the operations of lottery ticket scammers in Phuket on Wednesday, as the government continues its nationwide crackdown on overpriced lottery tickets sold on the country’s popular Blue Dragon Lottery website. Three homes on the island were raided for selling overpriced lottery tickets.
Armed with search warrants, police raided three homes on the island and arrested people who were not Blue Dragon Lottery representatives. They seized computers and bankbooks, which were handed over to the Tha Chatchai Police, near the Region 8 Police headquarters at the northern end of the island. Officers are now investigating whether the people arrested will face any charges. Pol Maj Gen Naphanwut Liamsanguan, Police Commander of Region 8, led the raids.
“They worked as a type of agent whereby Blue Dragon sold lottery tickets to them at B90-97 each, which the agent had to sell for B100-105, or more. Blue Dragon is involved in selling overpriced lottery tickets to agents, and agents themselves are selling overpriced ticket. Regardless of where Blue Dragon gets the lottery tickets from, Blue Dragon sells overpriced lottery tickets to agents and the general public.”
According to Liamsanguan, the raids in Phuket were part of coordinated raids at 13 locations in seven provinces, including Phuket, Chumphon, Krabi, Nakhon Ranong, Phang Nga, Surat Thani and Sri Thammarat.
Assistant police chief Pol Lt Gen Prachuap Wongsuk ordered the raids in Phuket, after seizing “millions of lottery tickets” in Monday’s raid on the offices of Lottery Online Co in Bangkok. last Friday, similar raids took place on the offices of lottery intermediary company Mungkornfain in Loei and Nonthaburi provinces.
Following Monday’s Bangkok raid, Prachuap said they had found evidence of ticket transactions worth more than 100 million baht per lottery draw, Thai PBS reported. As a result, the vendors involved in the scheme would lose their lottery ticket quota with the Government Lottery Office, if they had one.
Earlier this week, Thailand’s lottery ticket crackdown kingpin, deputy prime minister Seksakol Attawong, said his goal was “to deter ordinary people from engaging in selling overpriced tickets.” Meanwhile, the companies involved face prosecution for making millions of illegal baht in the lottery scheme.
Source: Thai PBS
