GAMBLING: City bookie falls foul of phone taps

Police scramble to stay one step ahead of soccer bettors

BANGKOK: -- Police yesterday arrested another soccergambling bookmaker and vowed to continue using phone taps to eavesdrop on suspected bet takers, although many of them now use nonsubscription prepaid mobile phone services.

In the latest arrest, police caught Sinsamroeng Akkarasmiyo, 44, a noodle seller in Bangkok’s Bang Khae district, at his house late on Monday night.

Police LtGeneral Boonyarit Rattanaporn, assistant police commissionergeneral, said a book was found in which Sinsamroeng recorded the details of bets on the Euro 2004 tournament amounting to Bt262,400.

The record also showed the man had received bets worth Bt172 million on soccer matches since 2001.

Sinsamroeng apparently admitted he had been taking bets as a second job, and had been earning Bt40,000 - Bt50,000 extra per month in profit.

Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner MajGeneral Wiroj Chantarangsi, said some bookmakers had started to encrypt their computerised bookmaking records to hide them.

Wiroj said police had seized computers from some suspected book

makers and police computer experts were still trying to decode the encrypted files.

A bookmaker in Chiang Mai said she was now using a prepaid mobile phone to prevent police from eavesdropping on her conversations with customers.

She said she would not accept bets from strangers for fear they could be police informants. She believed that more than Bt10 million had already been circulated among soccer gamblers in Chiang Mai alone.

But Chiang Mai police chief Police MajGeneral Kasem Rattanasunthorn said police would still be able to eavesdrop on phone conversations.

“We can still check prepaid phones – it just takes longer. We have already arrested three bookmakers after eavesdropping on their prepaid mobile phones,” Kasem said.

Meanwhile, Dr Manoon Leechavengwong, chairman of the “Don’t Drive Sleepy” campaign, said he was worried that the late match times in Thailand would cause many motorists to drive while sleepy.

He said drivers who feel tired should park and take a nap and have caffeine drinks to prevent road accidents.

Supakij Salimee, a manager of Piya Tour company, said his firm forbade drivers on the morning shift from watching the matches for fear they would doze off while driving the firm’s passenger buses.

--The Nation 2004-06-16

Obviously I'm in the wrong business.

Sinsamroeng Akkarasmiyo, 44, a noodle seller in Bangkok’s Bang Khae district.

You mean selling noodles?

though it is legal to sms in an entry for a prize of 10,000 baht?( tv advert during the games) no way that could be considered a lottery or gambling especially when certain phone companies might make revenue from it.