Eighty-one gamblers, including 25 foreigners, have been arrested during a raid on a gambling den in Lat Krabang district in eastern Bangkok.
The raid was carried out on Friday by a 50-strong team of officers from the Bangkok branch of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), Chorakhe Noi police, immigration officers and soldiers. When they descended on the large white building behind the Chinda market on Lat Krabang Soi 52, they found it locked with the air-conditioning turned on.
When the officers forced open the door they found many gambling machines inside along with some punters. They then forced open a locked connecting door to another room and found many more people playing cards inside. Upon seeing the officers, the men and women attempted to flee via eight hidden doors.
They were subsequently caught, Thai media reported on Saturday.
The 81 people arrested included nine foreign men and 16 foreign women, and 56 Thais (30 men and 26 women), said Pol Maj Manas Chandee, deputy head of Isoc in Bangkok, who led the raid.
The officers seized 22 gambling machines, 900 decks of cards, many sets of dice and two tables, 13 communication radios, two safes, a cash safe, 69 telephones, 16 televisions, 11 computers, two closed-circuit TV units, about one million baht in cash and some amounts of marijuana and crystal methamphetamine.
Maj Gen Manas said nobody claimed ownership of the gambling den, which hired immigrant workers as its staff.
An initial investigation found that the owner was identified only as “Soei”, Thai media reported.