Police carried out raids on 13 locations in Bangkok and the northern province of Chiang Rai<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Thailand.- Police have arrested five people<\/strong> on suspicion of money laundering and promoting an illegal gambling website. The arrests followed raids at 13 locations in Bangkok and the northern province of Chiang Rai. <\/p>\n\n\n\n National Police Chief General Damrongsak Kittiprapas<\/strong> said the group targeted had THB3bn in circulation, increased by bets on the World Cup in Qatar. Police seized cash, vehicles and assets worth more than THB1bn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The deputy chief of the national police, General Torsak Sukvimol<\/strong>, who oversees the police’s anti-gambling task force, told The Nation Thailand that in addition to betting on World Cup matches, the website offered slots, card games and fishing games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sukvimol said 10,644 people have been arrested on gambling charges since the task force was established in November to tackle betting on World Cup matches. He said 90 operators and over 9,000 customers have been caught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In November, the Crime Suppression Division <\/strong>(CSD) targeted a network<\/a> that was allegedly operating around 500 illegal betting websites<\/strong>. The operation followed a series of raids against the Fat Fast online gambling network in September, which resulted in 40 arrests<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Thailand, gambling is illegal, with the exception of government lottery and horse racing. However, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce estimated that Thais will bet around THB57.2bn (US$1.6bn) on the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year, Thai authorities began to analyse the possibility of legalising land-based and online casinos<\/a>. In July, a committee recommended the government issue a decree allowing casinos<\/a> in key cities. However, so far, there has been no progress on the proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Police carried out raids on 13 locations in Bangkok and the northern province of Chiang Rai<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Thai authorities conducted raids across 13 locations, arresting five individuals for money laundering and operating an illegal gambling website, seizing over THB1bn in assets. This operation, part of a broader crackdown on illicit betting, particularly around the World Cup, highlights the significant black market activity in Thailand amidst ongoing governmental consideration of iGaming and land-based casino legalization.","focusai_entities":"General Damrongsak Kittiprapas, General Torsak Sukvimol, Crime Suppression Division (CSD), University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Fat Fast","focusai_location":"Bangkok, Chiang Rai, Thailand, Qatar","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.95), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Legalization Efforts?","query":"How might the continued high-profile enforcement actions against illegal gambling networks influence the Thai government's timeline and political will for legalizing land-based and online casinos?"},{"label":"Market Size & Revenue Potential?","query":"Given the estimated THB57.2bn illegal World Cup betting market, what is the projected GGR and NGR potential for a fully regulated iGaming and land-based casino market in Thailand, and what are the key regulatory hurdles to achieving this?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-777001040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777001040"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777001063,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001040\/revisions\/777001063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777001040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777001040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777001040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}