British-led Card Room raided by officials in South Pattaya

[phantomfiddler]

Nice to see Pattaya,s finest eagerly engaged in their relentless fight against heinous crime in this city ! Translation .... Pathetic !!

[SOTIRIOS]

...worse than pathetic....

...they should post this in international news.....

[English 1]

The British Club in Bangkok hold Bridge sessions.

It's not Gambling!

[sabaii69]

I understand gambling is illegal. Sometimes gambling involves cards but this is clearly pathetic.

I gamble everytime I get on my motorbike. This is absurd and completely shows Thai ignorance. Senior farang bashing?

[SOTIRIOS]

...with everything going on in this country....

...worse than outrageous....

...take our money and treat us like @#$%^&*(....

...what is the charge for playing chess .......or checkers.....or even..... thinking...for that matter....

[me in BKK]

TIT, not more can be said!

[Classic Ray]

I just checked the date, it's definitely not April 1st which makes me shake my head even more. They can spare 50 cops to raid a bridge club but cannot make any effort to curb road deaths or protect children.

[madmitch]

And in other news: Famous Thai magician Pordaniel Tommikoopaporn was arrested by 30 police officers who raided his show in Bangkok after more than three packs of oversized playing cards were found in his trunk along with six unregistered white doves and a large saw.

[asdecas]

It's ok to trivialise it, but what starts off as 1 or 2 hands a night can soon reach 6 or 7, or in some cases even more. I hope they get locked away for a very long time.

I absolutely concur; pretty soon there'll be whist drives all over the country, then where will things be?

[lemonjelly]

Pathetic that the Royal Thai Police Farce had to do this.... SHAME ON YOU RTP

[realenglish1]

What a ridiculous use of Authority and power. This is a pastime for retirees not a den of of serious gambling

They took a tip off from a Thai will little knowledge of the world

[callaway]

This actually made the national TV news, even had the police video. A bunch of confused old folks playing Bridge.

Unclear what crime was committed, anyone know?

The offense relates to Section 8 of the Playing Cards Act of 1935 which states that an individual is not allowed to possess more than 120 playing cards at any one time. At the Bridge event, considerably more than 120 playing cards were found by officers.

I don't see the problem here except for the number of officers involved in the arrest. These people are criminals who broke the law. They knew they were committing a crime but obviously thought as affluent foreigners they were above the law or were too culturally insensitive to care. If you live in a country you should follow its laws and customs regardless of whether you agree with them or not. If you do not want to do that face the consequences or go somewhere else. I bet many of these would be the first to whine about foreigners in their on country flaunting the laws and refusing to conform to cultural norms.

I certainly hope this is sarcasm. If not you are unbelievable. Have you ever played bridge? Possibly not as intelligence is required. Please explain how anyone (being tourist or expat) is supposed to know an 80 year old law still on the books. No other country would there be a problem having a few hands of bridge with friends. You need to get a life. " Or go somewhere else"

[gyrosman]

Another example of the quality of professionalism of the Thai police. 50 officers, where were the other 2 officers left from the station. 50 police for a raid but can't patrol the bar scene at night. Too busy playing cards after dark with seniors. Are Domino's illegal? No gambling but let's sell Lottery tickets?

[mcfish]

Bib was hopeful they were about to make multiple farang arrest followed by extortion back at the station, that's what it's really about

Sent from my SC-01D using Tapatalk

[Tanlic]

Is this the 1st of April??

[Kiteboy57]

Thank buddah that we can all sleep safely in our beds tonight in the knowledge that our Thai police force are at the cutting edge of the criminal coalface and will not rest until these dangers to society are behind bars! lol

KB

[thaiduncankk]

The KK snap club on Tuesdays has been disbanded with immediate effect !

[Spock]

This actually made the national TV news, even had the police video. A bunch of confused old folks playing Bridge.

Unclear what crime was committed, anyone know?

The offense relates to Section 8 of the Playing Cards Act of 1935 which states that an individual is not allowed to possess more than 120 playing cards at any one time. At the Bridge event, considerably more than 120 playing cards were found by officers.

I don't see the problem here except for the number of officers involved in the arrest. These people are criminals who broke the law. They knew they were committing a crime but obviously thought as affluent foreigners they were above the law or were too culturally insensitive to care. If you live in a country you should follow its laws and customs regardless of whether you agree with them or not. If you do not want to do that face the consequences or go somewhere else. I bet many of these would be the first to whine about foreigners in their on country flaunting the laws and refusing to conform to cultural norms.

Surely futsu this is tongue in cheek. Your comment if serious ignores the utter absurdity of the situation. Old people playing bridge are hardly 'criminals who broke the law'. In this case, the law is an ass.

[gandalf12]

Murders, Rapes, Drunk driving, Assaults, Shootings and the best they can do is arrest a group of people who are not gambling?????? For goodness sake get real

[arminbkk]

This actually made the national TV news, even had the police video. A bunch of confused old folks playing Bridge.

Unclear what crime was committed, anyone know?

From the linked article, reportedly the crime, or offense, is:

"The offense relates to Section 8 of the Playing Cards Act of 1935 which states that an individual is not allowed to possess more than 120 playing cards at any one time. At the Bridge event, considerably more than 120 playing cards were found by officers."

I am not a card player, so, is Bridge a card game where each player holds more than 120 playing cards?

[DonaldBattles]

These law breaking people from a small island nation should be brought to justice. How dare they try to enjoy themselves in a place where they are not wanted. I looks like there were more than 5 people present so they should be brought to the army camp for an attitude adjustment. Maybe they could get some Thai rent a mob people and play in front of the US Embassy where they would be left alone.

[soalbundy]

Hope the police were heavily armed, you can never tell with aged bridge players, cunning lot of ruthless criminals

[cmsally]

Pleeeeaaaase pleeeeeaaase let the international press get hold of this !! Someone could have a field day with this.

[namatjira]

Haha, I actually thought this guy was using a bit of sarcasm and having a laugh, surely it was written as a joke...

Nobody can be that stupid....no, they did not know they were committing a crime and no they were not gambling...

But the dudes response is laughable...and indeed moronic...if stupidity was an offense I imagine he would have been locked up years ago

[soalbundy]

This actually made the national TV news, even had the police video. A bunch of confused old folks playing Bridge.

Unclear what crime was committed, anyone know?

The offense relates to Section 8 of the Playing Cards Act of 1935 which states that an individual is not allowed to possess more than 120 playing cards at any one time. At the Bridge event, considerably more than 120 playing cards were found by officers.

I don't see the problem here except for the number of officers involved in the arrest. These people are criminals who broke the law. They knew they were committing a crime but obviously thought as affluent foreigners they were above the law or were too culturally insensitive to care. If you live in a country you should follow its laws and customs regardless of whether you agree with them or not. If you do not want to do that face the consequences or go somewhere else. I bet many of these would be the first to whine about foreigners in their on country flaunting the laws and refusing to conform to cultural norms.

Sometimes i can be a plonker as well but as much of a plonker as you are i have never been

[off road pat]

I have a feeling this is going to make more than the national Thai news.

he he he, it's impossible to get bored in Thailand, The police always entertains us...!!!! can't wait until the next one...witch will be very soon..

[recycler]

Thailand on it's way to happiness...

[DrTuner]

Next up, round up the oldtimers in retirement houses for playing bingo. Tar and feathers I say, 'em bloody criminals.

[stephenterry]

The offense relates to Section 8 of the Playing Cards Act of 1935 which states that an individual is not allowed to possess more than 120 playing cards at any one time. At the Bridge event, considerably more than 120 playing cards were found by officers.

With moronic statements like that you'd make a perfect dummy. Just for the record not one person was in possession of more than 120cards.

There were 32 people playing. Each would hold a maximum of 13 cards per deal. So NO individual possessed more than 120 playing cards. Is that clear? As there were 8 tables in play the total number of cards in the room would exceed 120 cards (probably 8*52=416 cards in total. I suspect you've never played bridge or have any idea about it, so your highlight defines your ignorance.

[pookiki]

Here's the basic problem:

Woody Allen said that 'bridge is like sex'. 'If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand!'

Number of cards involved is irrelevant. It's the police who are playing with less than a full deck! But maybe, just maybe, the police heard the players 'bidding' and had to think gambling was involved!!