Authorities in Thailand are continuing to take on the black market at a monumental scale after the Ministry blocked 883,012 URLs between October 2025 and July 2026 – including over 600,000 related to illegal online gambling.
Intensifying action, authorities are now set to be granted with new powers to accelerate the blocking of illegal websites, as the problem seemingly refuses to go away.
According to The Nation, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul was among the politicians who have urged for greater action against online crime, including illegal gambling.
As a result, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has issued a governmental notification reducing the number of steps required before an illegal URL can be blocked.
Through amendments under Section 20 of the Computer Crime Act 2007, officials designated by the Permanent Secretary for Digital Economy and Society, Patchara Anuntasilpa, will be able to submit a petition to court ordering the suspension or blocking of a webpage as soon as possible.
The Ministry warned that recent action is just the tip of the iceberg, as the number of illegal URLs still online now numbers in the millions, compared to the tens of thousands observed just a few years ago.
It underpins the challenges around tackling unlicensed URLs as they replicate their platform and simply shift their site, with one industry insider describing it as a game of whack-a-mole for authorities.
Combatting illegal online gambling was a major focus of Thai authorities during the World Cup, and the country’s police force confirmed that it shut down 4,576 online football gambling websites and arrested 617 bookmakers during the tournament.
The police said that more than 20bn baht (£442.6m) has circulated through these websites, underscoring the appetite for gambling within the Thai population.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Charnivirakul met with China’s President Xi Jinping and reaffirmed a commitment to fight transnational crimes, including illegal gambling.
A joint statement by the two countries said: “Both sides agreed to enhance collaboration between law enforcement and judicial agencies, as well as extradition and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, to effectively tackle these challenges.”
