Police in Pattaya City, Chonburi Province, Thailand, raided an illegal casino hidden inside a sports club in the city center, arresting 19 people on the spot, including foreign gamblers, and seizing a large amount of gambling equipment and cash chips. The amount of money involved in the gambling exceeded 5 million Thai baht.
This operation was personally led by the chief of the Pattaya Police Station, who teamed up with more than ten officers to raid the secret casino located in a high-end sports club. The police controlled 9 Thais and 10 foreigners at the scene, with the foreigners coming from various countries, including Malaysia (3 people), the Philippines, Cambodia, Russia, Denmark, Myanmar, Singapore, and Canada.
According to preliminary investigations, the casino was organized and operated by a 65-year-old Singaporean man named Yin Choun Lau. The police found 4 sets of poker tables and chairs, a large number of cash chips, a surveillance camera, and a television set at the scene.
The sports club has three floors and is luxuriously decorated. The first floor has a billiards area, and the second floor has been transformed into a casino with 3 separate rooms, each marked with "Members Only" and "Sport Poker Club" in English, clearly attempting to disguise it as a legitimate venue.
The police revealed that the casino's operation involved charging an entrance fee of 1,800 Thai baht per round, with initial bets ranging from 75,000 to 150,000 Thai baht, and the total amount of gambling money circulated in a short period exceeded 5 million Thai baht.
The Pattaya police stated that this sports club had only recently opened and was actually an illegal gambling den. The operation model was based on the popular poker competition method abroad, but such gambling is still illegal in Thailand. After receiving the information, the police quickly deployed and launched the raid, and the case is currently under further investigation.
