Police arrest two alleged gambling operators following Phuket robbery

Police in Phuket reported yesterday that two men in other parts of Thailand have been arrested for allegedly operating an online gambling website. Police have now reportedly seized more than 3.7 billion baht in cash and taken the website down. They also seized dozens of other items of evidence, including three land title deeds and four contracts, eight mobile phones, two computers and a car.

A lieutenant general from Tha Chatchai Police Station said the arrests follow an investigation of a Phuket gold shop robber in October last year. The robber seriously assaulted the shop owners, a husband and wife, hitting them on the head with a piece of wood. The man reportedly bound the couples’ hands and feet with wire and threatened to beat the wife if they didn’t open the safe. The robber reportedly claimed he robbed the store to pay off his online gambling debts. Police then arrested the two men operating the website.

The lieutenant general now urges the public to report people trying to lure them into online gambling to the Information Technology Crime Suppression Center. The centre can be reached at 1599 and their direct line 081-8663000. He added that gambling is deeply destructive to Thailand, “…which intoxicates our youth and destroys our country’s economy”.

The man who robbed the gold shop has been identified 26 year old Chai Aung. The two gambling operators recently arrested have been identified as Nirawat Chanthapuhn and Somsak Cherntong. Their ages haven’t been released. Nirawat was arrested in Chiang Rai province and Somsak was arrested in Prachuap Khiri Khan province.

This latest crackdown follows last week’s gambling bust in Pattaya, where police arrested 10 people at a gambling party in the Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri province.

SOURCE: The Phuket News