{"id":777022646,"date":"2025-02-06T08:37:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T11:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777022646"},"modified":"2026-04-22T02:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:05:09","slug":"218-arrested-in-thailand-for-alleged-illegal-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/218-arrested-in-thailand-for-alleged-illegal-gambling","title":{"rendered":"218 arrested in Thailand for alleged illegal gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The alleged gambling den was located in a dry paddy field in Nakhon Nayok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thailand.- Some 218 people have been arrested for alleged involvement in\u00a0<strong>illegal gambling <\/strong>in a dry paddy field in the Ongkharak district of Nakhon Nayok. Police seized 560,570 baht and gambling chips worth over 2m baht (US$0.06m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to officers, the gambling den had been operating for nearly a year and taxis, minibuses and vans transported gamblers.\u00a0Those arrested were taken to Ongkharak police station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In January, police arrested\u00a0<strong>two South Korean nationals<\/strong>\u00a0for allegedly running online gambling sites from a residence in Udon Thani province. Police seized computers and other equipment. According to local media reports, the sites involved were\u00a0<strong>Vinus<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Gaming Services<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>100d-1<\/strong>. The suspects are reported to have confessed that they also managed operations for other gaming platforms, facilitated transactions for gamblers and promoted the websites in South Korea, Thailand, and other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The gambling websites reportedly had a monthly turnover of KRW4bn (US$2.8m), and those arrested allegedly received monthly salaries ranging from 80,000 to 100,000 baht each for maintaining the websites and advertising in the targeted countries. They face charges for working without the necessary permits as foreign nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, the&nbsp;<strong>Stop Gambling Foundation<\/strong>, along with a group of legal experts, anti-gambling advocates and representatives from various institutions and professional groups, aims to challenge the government\u2019s plan to&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/legalisation-of-casinos-in-thailand-draft-bill-could-be-sent-to-cabinet-by-year-end\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">legalise&nbsp;casinos in entertainment complexes<\/a>. They aim to collect 50,000 signatures to demand a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Thanakorn Komkris<\/strong>, secretary-general of the Stop Gambling Foundation, said a petition would be submitted to the Election Commission (EC), which would check the eligibility of signees. Komkris<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>said that the cabinet would not be able to reject the petition and would have to set a date.&nbsp;<strong>Phumtham Wechayachai<\/strong>, Thailand\u2019s deputy prime minister, has previously dismissed calls for a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A survey conducted by<strong>&nbsp;the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida)&nbsp;<\/strong>found the majority of Thais to be opposed to the government\u2019s plans to legalise casino entertainment complexes and online gambling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The alleged gambling den was located in a dry paddy field in Nakhon Nayok.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777011924,"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 significant raids, arresting 218 individuals at an illegal physical gambling den in Nakhon Nayok and two South Korean nationals operating illicit online gambling sites with substantial turnover from Udon Thani. Concurrently, a coalition led by the Stop Gambling Foundation is actively challenging the government's proposed casino legalization plan, seeking a public referendum amidst survey findings indicating majority public opposition.","focusai_entities":"Stop Gambling Foundation, Thanakorn Komkris, Election Commission, Phumtham Wechayachai, National Institute of Development Administration, Vinus Gaming Services, 100d-1","focusai_location":"Nakhon Nayok, Thailand, Ongkharak district, Udon Thani province, South Korea","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Legalization Referendum Impact","query":"What specific mechanisms exist for the Election Commission to validate the proposed petition for a referendum on casino legalization, and what is the projected timeline for such a process?"},{"label":"Illegal Market Scale","query":"How does the estimated monthly turnover of KRW4bn from the identified illegal online operations compare to the projected GGR of a potential regulated iGaming market in Thailand?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[20326],"class_list":["post-777022646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-illegal-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022646","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=777022646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777022654,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022646\/revisions\/777022654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777011924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777022646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777022646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777022646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}