Pengdit claimed that the gang was professionally organized, with clearly defined roles including manager, accountant, phone operators and those who actually deposited and withdrew money from the accounts. Pengdit alleged that the gang’s top recruiting agents were funneling between Bt200m and Bt500m ($6.4m – $16.1m) per month to the online gambling sites. The gang routinely shifted their money between banks, typically keeping accounts active for no more than three months at a stretch.
The URLs of the websites in question were not disclosed. The DSI undertook a campaign against gangs linked to Cambodia-based online gambling sites last fall in which it seized the contents of 103 bank accounts. In May, police in Pattaya bused an online football betting operation being run by South Korean nationals out of a luxury condominium. Thailand doesn’t allow its citizens to gamble online, and even proposals to allow National Lottery players to buy non-pre-printed tickets via terminals in retail outlets – what Thai politicians refer to as ‘online gambling’ – has been hugely controversial.