Two sisters held in bust of B700m gambling site

Police also charge two firms with sending millions of online messages promoting betting

Two sisters in Lampang face charges of running a gambling website that had about 700 million baht in circulation, police say.

The women were arrested along with four staff members in raids on three houses in the northern province on Thursday.

Two companies in Lampang and Chiang Mai that sent millions of online messages to encourage betting were also raided and their owners arrested.

Punika Arayasuwan, 41, and Pratthana Arayasuwan, 39, were wanted on arrest warrants issued by the Chiang Mai Provincial Court for running an online gambling operation or persuading people to gamble, and for laundering money.

Officers from the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) searched three houses in tambon Bo Haew of Lampang, said Pol Lt Gen Worawat Watnakhonbancha, commissioner of the CCIB.

Along with the two sisters, officers arrested four staff members — three men and one woman — who were website administrators and marketing staff.

The four were identified as Tiyanon Arayasuwan, 39, Bodin Jaita, 33, Chaiyawit Arwad, 39, and Thippapha Seekham, 25

Seized from the houses were four cars, four motorcycles, more than 200,000 baht in cash, diamond ornaments and brand-name bags. The seized items were worth about 20 million baht.

Pol Lt Gen Worawat said investigators had found that the website “hppoipet” had posted advertisements to persuade people to bet online. They subsequently learned that the operation was run from three houses in Lampang.

When police arrived at one of the houses, they found the two sisters and staff chatting with gambling customers online. The location had a grocery shop in the front, while a bedroom inside had been fitted out with IT gear to run the website, said Pol Lt Gen Worawat.

During questioning, Ms Punika and Ms Pratthana told officers that they used to work as PR staff for a casino in the Cambodian border town of Poipet, which attracts thousands of Thai punters.

When they returned to Thailand, their brother-in-law saw an opportunity to make money. He contacted a Cambodian operator to purchase a franchise to run the HPPOIPET website in Thailand, and also held shares in the gambling website in Cambodia.

The two women said they had been running the business in Lampang for 7 years and received commissions of 10-20% of the amounts bet. The website had more than 5,000 customers, both Thais and Cambodian nationals, and more than 700 million baht in circulation, according to the CCIB chief.

The other suspects who worked as website administrators were paid 8,000 to 14,000 baht a month. Another woman, identified as Kotchakorn Iang-on, 28, was being sought as she opened a bank account for proceeds from the website, said Pol Lt Gen Worawat.

Also on Thursday, another team of CCIB officers raided two firms in Lampang and Chiang Mai after learning that that they had provided online messaging services to persuade people to gamble.

The officers arrested the owners of the two firms and charged them with supporting a gambling operation, said the CCIB chief.

According to the police investigation, Havesms Co in Chiang Mai sent one billion messages a year and earned about 100 million baht. Dav Fong Co in Lampang sent 40 million messages a year and earned 4 million baht.

Pol Lt Gen Worawat Watnakhonbancha, head of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, points at a chart detailing the operations of one of two firms that sent online messages to promote gambling. (Photo supplied/Wassayos Ngamkham)