Thailand's national police force announced on 11 July 2569 that it is preparing to establish an Anti Online Gambling Center (AOGC) to prevent and suppress online gambling and to monitor abnormal transactions so that accounts can be frozen promptly1. The plan follows a meeting between the Royal Thai Police and the Bank of Thailand held on 9 July 25691.
Police Lieutenant General Trirong Phiwphan, deputy director of the police Information Technology Crime Suppression Center and a police spokesman, said the two bodies met to set proactive cooperation guidelines for cutting the financial circuits of online gambling and gray capital networks, so that financial institutions, financial service providers and payment gateways are not used as tools for offenses1. He said online gambling remains a significant problem linked to financial crime, money laundering and gray capital networks, and that although offenders have increasingly turned to digital assets, bank accounts, payment services and payment gateways remain the main channels for receiving, sending and circulating money for these networks1.
The cooperation covers three areas, according to the announcement1:
| Area | Stated purpose |
|---|---|
| Exchange of information and proactive alerts | Set a mechanism for sharing data between the Royal Thai Police, the Bank of Thailand, financial institutions and payment service providers to identify, track and handle accounts or financial channels linked to online gambling quickly |
| Support for investigations and financial tracing | Discuss how the financial sector can support police investigations more effectively, to speed up tracing of money trails, expansion of cases and prosecution of key figures in the networks |
| Integration between agencies | Set cooperation guidelines among state and private bodies including the Royal Thai Police, the Anti-Money Laundering Office, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, the Bank of Thailand, financial institutions, payment gateway providers and other financial service providers |
Trirong said the AOGC will monitor abnormal transactions so that account freezes can be carried out in time, with the Bank of Thailand cooperating by sending data on abnormal transactions1. The Royal Thai Police has already sent samples of transactions suspected of using payment gateways to receive money circulating from gambling1.
"การพนันออนไลน์ยังคงเป็นปัญหาสำคัญที่เชื่อมโยงกับอาชญากรรมทางการเงิน การฟอกเงิน และเครือข่ายทุนสีเทา"
What it means for players
The announcement describes monitoring of abnormal transactions and faster account freezes, which points to bank accounts and payment channels used for gambling deposits and withdrawals as the focus. Players in Thailand, whether local, expat or visiting, who move money to or from online betting sites through Thai bank accounts or payment gateways fall inside the category of transactions the center is being set up to flag1. The statement does not describe how individual accounts would be selected, what evidence would trigger a freeze, or how a person could challenge a freeze. It also does not say whether the AOGC will pursue players, agents or operators, or all three. None of that has been reported1.
The police statement frames the effort around cutting financial circuits rather than around arrests of bettors, and it names payment gateways, not players, as the channel being abused1. For practical purposes, the risk described in the announcement sits with the money trail: an account or payment route identified as linked to online gambling can be acted on so that funds are frozen quickly1. Thailand's underlying law on gambling, and how it treats players, is unchanged by this announcement and is not addressed in it1.
What happens next
The Royal Thai Police says it is preparing to establish the AOGC, and the two agencies have agreed on cooperation in information sharing, investigative support and inter-agency integration1. No start date for the center, no staffing details and no timeline for the cooperation measures have been reported1.
