Thailand Illegal Gambling Raid Exposes Police and Military Corruption

The latest Thailand illegal gambling raid has revealed the involvement of members of the Thai police and military in illicit activities.

In gambling news, there has been yet another Thailand illegal gambling raid, this time on the Island of Phuket. Police raided an underground casino when they were tipped off by neighbors. The activities, which occurred daily in the private house, included a three-dice game known as ‘High-Low’ as well as slot machines. The anonymous tipsters said that the illegal casino operators were conducting the games “with no apparent fear of the law”—little wonder, as the operators are the ones making the law, with around 40 of the 100 people arrested being government officers.

During the Thailand illegal gambling raid a phone belonging to one of those arrested was handed to one of the Royal Thai Navy officers leading the search, Colonel Sompop Kamkana. On it was an Army colonel who ordered the immediate release of the arrested suspects, as well as for Kamkana and his officers to forget that the incident had ever occurred. When he refused, Sompop says that the Army colonel “started to condemn me with very rude words. He also threatened that he had powerful friends who would have me transferred out of Phuket.”

Phone records confirm that the call came from a phone registered with an Army colonel. Sompop refuses to publically name the colonel, but did say that he’d reported the call to Phuket’s governor, and wishes to launch an investigation into the incident.

Other Thailand illegal gambling raid revealed police involvement in illegal activities

That law officials are involved in the breaking of Thai gambling laws is nothing new, as another Thailand illegal gambling raid had occurred recently which also exposed police corruption. The raid was on a shop-slash-gambling den in Bangkok, and resulted in the arrests of 31 people as well as the immediate reassignment of a superintendent and four of his subordinates.

The day following the raid, the Metropolitan Police Bureau had ordered the five officers to report to the operations center, where they will be for the next month while an internal investigation takes place. It is still unknown to what the extent the officers were involved in the Bangkok gambling raid. The current situation of the 31 other suspects arrested also remains unknown.