Eighteen Vietnamese nationals have been arrested for allegedly running an online gambling operation during a raid on a luxury house in Bangkok.

Immigration police searched the house in Rama IX area on suspicion that a group of foreign nationals was using the premises as an operations base for online gambling, Pol Lt Gen Ittiphol Itthisarnronchai, Immigration Bureau (IB) chief, said during a media conference on Thursday.

Eighteen Vietnamese nationals – 10 men and 8 women – were found inside the luxury house. One of them was identified as Le Thi Kim Oanh, 20. The woman and the 17 other accomplices were charged with colluding in running an online gambling operation or persuading people in a direct or indirect manner to gamble.

Seized from the house were 35 items, including computers and other accessories, used for operating online gambling.

The arrests were made after IB investigators received a complaint that a group of suspected foreign nationalswere living inside the house, rarely leaving it, with the lights always turned on. The officers then began to closely monitor the movement of the foreign tenants, the IB chief said. They discovered that they were Vietnamese nationals and also obtained evidence that they were operating online gambling inside the house. The officers then sought approval from Phra Khanong Criminal Court to search the two-storey house.

The first floor of the house was a relaxation area and the second floor was used as accommodation. The lobby was used as an online gambling operation room with 10 sets of computers and accessories. 

Security camera footage showed that the 18 Vietnamese nationals took turns working on computers with links to gambling websites.

During questioning, the 18 suspects admitted they worked as administrators of gambling websites that operated around the clock, according to the IB chief. They said the gambling operator was a Vietnamese national. They were each paid 20,000 baht a month plus commissions from the amount of the online bets they persuaded gamblers to place. 

The house had been rented since November last year to be used an operations base for online gambling. All those detained were handed over to officers at Hua Mak police station for legal action.

An immigration officer shows a chart detailing the arrest of 18 Vietnamese nationals for running online gambling at a rented luxury house in Bangkok. (Photo: Immigration Bureau)