Police in the Thailand town of Pattaya have broken up an online gambling ring involving four South Korean men and a Thai woman.
A team made up of local and tourist police as well as immigration officers carried out the raid at premises in the Bang Lamung, following a tip off that nationals from South Korean had rented it. In addition to the five arrests, police recovered computers, phones, money transfer records and lists of gamblers. When questions, the Koreans admitted that they had been renting the room since the end of August, and that they had hired a China-based programmer to set up a gambling site.
Gambling in Thailand is strictly regulated, and the only legal forms are lotteries and on-course betting at certain racecourses. But gambling remains extremely popular among the Thai people, and millions of dollars are wagered every year on sporting events, particularly football.
A thousand customers a day
According to Thai police, the illegal site was taking bets from up to 1,000 South Korean customers per day, and the operators paid the programmer a monthly fee to run and promote the site.
The police also revealed that one of the men involved was also wanted by South Korean police for a number of offences, including the falsifying of documents. The group appear to have entered Thailand around six months previously and had been operating an online gambling site in Bangkok, before they moved to Pattaya in August, where locals became suspicious.
The four men involved in the operation have been held by Pattaya police and will face charges of illegal gambling before deportation, while the Thai woman will be charged with immigration offences.
Police and gun image taken from Shutterstock.com
