NAKHON SAWAN: A 53-year-old monk and three laymen were caught and charged with gambling and drinking, as other punters fled, when police entered a temple pavilion on Monday night.
Police said at least 10 people were found playing high-low dice in the kitchen in the temple pavilion at Wat Sai Tai in Muang district around 8pm.
When police entered the pavilion, the gamblers took off. Four were caught, one of them a monk, Pol Col Sutthinan Khongchaemdee, the Muang investigation chief, said.
Police seized dicing equipment, 60 baht cash, three opened bottles of lao khao liquor and some abandoned drug paraphernalia.
The arrested monk was identified only as Phra Mao, 53, who admitted to gambling and drinking alcohol with others. He said it was small stakes gambling, only 5-10 baht a game, Pol Col Sutthinan said.
Phra Mao said he did not know who left behind the drugs gear.
He was expelled from the monkhood by the abbot and police then charged him with gambling, along with the three arrested laymen.
Pol Col Sutthinan said the raid followed a complaint about gambling in the temple grounds. Phra Mao, who had been a monk for at least 10 years, allegedly encouraged local people to bet at the temple to help the abbot, who was ill.
Media reported there were other monks also playing dice, but they were among those who got away.
Police said the investigation was continuing.