Thailand and Cambodia join forces to crack down on online gambling dens

The Thai and Cambodian governments have aligned to suppress call-centre scammers and operators of online gambling dens.

Thailand.- Representatives of the governments of Thailand and Cambodia have met to sign a memorandum of understanding to tackle online gambling hub operators and call-centre scammers. Thailand says all affected government agencies have been ordered to join the crackdown.

Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office of Thailand said the agreement reflects the government’s increased efforts to crack down on scammers and online gambling on orders from Prime Minister Prayuth Prayut.

The spokesman said the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society was integrating its operations with other government agencies to crack down on call centre gangs and gambling sites. Over the past year, the collaboration has resulted in the arrest of as many as 6,348 suspects in 5,517 cases.

Cooperation between government agencies also led to the shutdown of 742 gambling sites in the first three months of the year.

Wangboonkongchana also referred to a series of raids that ended with the arrest of 10 people in Nonthaburi province.

According to Bangkok Post, a team with a court order first raided a house that was being used by the gambling site bxslots.com. Officers said that five people in the house were found to chat with clients online and process financial transactions.

Police then there were 15 other sites on the same network, each in a residential building in Muang Thong Thani, Pak Kret district. Officers split into teams to raid the other locations. Five other people were arrested during the search.

A few weeks ago, police also made a series of arrests related to the illegal gambling website Gimi88, which was shut down after the arrest of 46 suspects on February 8.