Authorities in Thailand are preparing a major crackdown on illegal online gambling platforms ahead of this month’s FIFA World Cup.
According to reports from the Bangkok Post, police have identified 309 online gambling websites as priority targets for action in May and June, with some arrests already made in relation to the platforms.
Lieutenant General Trairong Piwpan, Deputy Director of the Technology Crime Suppression Centre, said that police have been ordered to monitor and prevent young people from being involved in online gambling during the tournament, which will begin on 11 June.
Thailand joins Indonesia and Hong Kong in raising the alarm bells over the potential of the World Cup to accelerate black market gambling across Asia.
The tournament is projected to break records for betting, as more than $60bn is estimated to be wagered on the tournament, according to H2 Gambling Capital, a 71% increase compared to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Thai authorities said that they have blocked over 717,000 URLs between October 2025 and May 2026, including some on Facebook and TikTok, and will continue to do so throughout the rest of the year.
The scale of the crackdown and the widespread action underpins just how significant the threat of black market operators is during the tournament in the summer, as new audiences are engaged with betting.
The crackdown comes as data from the Technology Crime Suppression Centre revealed that more than 4 million Thai nationals aged 15 to 25, defined as being Gen Z, have engaged in online gambling.
The centre said that influencers are being used to target players with promises of using gambling to generate significant wealth.
It also noted that these platforms have shifted away from using mule accounts to move money for gambling, instead using corporate accounts, cross-border intermediaries and cryptocurrencies.
Thailand’s black market is estimated to be worth 1.1trn Baht (£25.1bn) annually, with football betting accounting for the largest share at 270.4bn Baht (£6.16bn).
Piwpan said that the police have deployed AI to detect illegal gambling content, allowing authorities to target black market platforms more effectively.
