Legality Of On-line Gambling

[konangrit]

I know that most forms of gambling are illegal in Thailand, however, what is the status of on-line gambling? I realise that the question is fairly accademic, as the chances of being caught are negligable.

I use Ladbrokes, and on their list of restricted territories they make no mention of Thailand whatsoever:

"We cannot open accounts, or process bets or financial transactions, for individuals residing in USA or Germany.

We accept only horse racing, greyhound racing, casino and poker bets, and not lotto, Balls, or other games bets, from individuals residing in Holland.

We accept only sports bets from individuals residing in Gibraltar. We do not take any bets from residents of Hong Kong whilst they are in Hong Kong. However, Hong Kong residents can have an account and deposit money whilst in Hong Kong for use when outwith the territory.

We also reserve the right to request proof of residence from persons who wish to use credit cards issued in restricted territories to pay for transactions. It is the responsibility of each individual customer to ensure that they comply completely with their own local, national or state laws concerning betting, prior to them registering, or before placing a bet. "

This seems a pretty indepth list of which territories ban or have restrictions on on-line gambling. What's more, Thai is only one of 2 non-european languages that Ladbrokes site is available in. (The other is Chinese,incidentally)

So, anyone actually know if on-line gambling is actually illegal in Thailand, or not?

Konangrit

[TRIPxCORE]

I maintain an online sports betting account. It is based in the Carribean and is listed on the London Stock Exchange or so they say. Anyway, I am often in Thailand with my wife and we will be moving there soon. I always make bets from internet cafes within LOS and people can see me I am sure but no one says anything or people dont know what I am doing. If you want to do it, you shouldnt worry about getting caught. Especially if you are doing it from within your own home. No one can see you. There are many sports betting sites and they have online casinos attached to them. I have never heard about any territorial restrictions they impose on anyone. Feel free to do what you want. This is the sportsbook I am with, never had a problem with them.

Sportsbook

[monty]

Hi konangrit,

Gambling is highly illegal in Thailand, so the government is cracking down on wesites offering gambling services. They won't catch you most probably, but you will never know if you'll have acces to your gambling website tomorrow.

The ladbrokes website is inaccesible from within Thailand. If you try you only get following message (both in Thai and English, copied only the English part)

Sorry, the web site you are accessing has been closed by Royal Thai Police due to inappropriateness such as pornography, gambling or contain any information which is deemed to violate national security.

For more information, please contact "Police Information System Center" Bld#19 2nd Flr, Royal Thai Police, Rama I, Patumwan, Bangkok 10330 Tel. 0-2251-0164,

email : [email protected]

At the moment the government hired a bunch of students to "Google" after those websites, and most of them will be blocked shortly after being found out about...

At the moment over 10,000 websites are being blocked, mainly porn and gambling...

Welcome to the "Toxin" government....

[monty]

Check out this thread on internet censorship in Thailand...

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...3&hl=censorship

Ladbrokes wa already blocked back then, and this was before they let them students loose!!!

My guess is that ladbrokes brought it on themselves by putting their site in Thai language as well... This probably is considered a direct attack on the poor self restraint Thai people have concerning gambling...

[tutsiwarrior]

re: gambling...what can we say about the legality of regular all night gambling sessions held in private premises with friends and associates in attendance only? My wife regularly has people over (no more than a 4 hand arrangement) and folks seem to be wary of prying eyes as doors and windows are kept closed. Is this an offence?

I've said to the wife don't be doin' nothin' illegal as it will be my arse as a falang. She just says 'you no wolley, OK...?'

What's the consensus?...is this another duck feeding method?...(brown ducks, brown ducks...)

[monty]

If one of the friends gets a bit annoyed about any incurred losses, Tutsi might be in a whole bunch of shit... A stack of cards and two 1 Baht coins is enough to get arrested on... Thais get booked, pay the fine and go home again (on first offence anyway), if they see a Farang face you better have a stack of 1000 Baht bills with you or risk getting deported...

Happened to a friend of mine, problem got blown up when a search of one of the friends of his GF produced a single Ya Ba tablet... He is scared to come back even though they didn't put a persona non grata stamp in his passport. The offence he was charged with was allowing gambling on his premisses (his name was on the rental contract of the house!)

[tutsiwarrior]

monty...the technicality sounds OK re: whose name is the premises in? In my case it's the wife...I bought the place but I just live here. So maybe I would be spared the (in)justice of the local authorities if the gambling activity was to be busted and viewed as illegal. I'm never around (in the same room) when the card games go on...usually on the laptop hurling abuse at Thai.visa contributors...

with regard to illegal substances, I ain't got none...but I wonder about the folks who are able to stay awake all night playing cards...

[konangrit]

Thanx Monty, I thought it was strange why Ladbrokes made no mention of Thailand being a restricted territory on their site. Obviously, if the Thai government doesn't allow access to their site within Thailand, then Ladbrokes feel no need to restrict Thais themselves.

I feel that this only applies to their actual website, and not the gaming software which is used to connect to their on-line casino games, as I often play poker on-line with Thais residing in Thailand.

Konangrit

[konangrit]

Thanx for the link, Monty,

From reading some of the posts on the other thread, it would seem that it is fairly easy to get around The Royal Thai Polices' block on sites. I can only assume that they feel that Thais are too stupid to work this out for themselves, or indeed the powers that be are too stupid to realise this. Well, it can only be a matter of time before they declare the war on offensive websites to be won, and move onto Thaksins' next big idea......any suggestions for the next social vice to be "eradicated" by him?

Seems that Ladbrokes getting blocked was quite widely publicised, as you said, probably pretty stupid of them to make their site available in Thai.

[monty]

If you have software directly connecting to their servers, then there is no way they are going to find out! They simply haven't got the resources to do that!

If you just keep private about what you're doing nobody will ever find out!

You would be amazed about how many Farangs are doing things which are borderline legal! Just keep low profile and you'll be fine...