The open-season police raid on a conference-turned-casino room at the Asia Pattaya hotel netted around 80 gamblers from India and an assortment of Thai and Myanmar card dealers, tour organizers and money counters. It is difficult to envisage a more bungled and chaotic gambling holiday which was bound to result in tears and worse. Hotel management was suspiciously told none of their staff could enter the large room because it was a private meeting. But eagle-eyed hotel staff had already noticed that some of the larger suitcases did not appear to contain clothes and personal effects.
Astonishingly, the arrested gamblers included several Indian businessmen with high profiles. One of them, according to India media reports, was Chikoti Praveen who had previously organized similar VIP gambling parties in Indonesia, Nepal and Bangladesh. But he had separately appeared before The Enforcement Directorate in his own country for alleged violations of the foreign exchange rules, money laundering and tax evasion. Other prominent men at the blackjack tables were an Indian bank manager and a director of a travel company.
Miscellaneous extras included several illegal hookahs seized in the raid – used for heating or vaporizing and then smoking tobacco, flavored tobacco or hashish. Most remembers of the group had arrived on April 27 and the raid occurred just after midnight on May 1, the final day of the group booking. The group spent all their waking hours gambling which was an obvious giveaway. No wonder a concerned member of the public became suspicious. At the police station, some of the arrested even tried to argue that gambling in Thailand was now legal as there was a state lottery with betting also allowed on horse racing.
Criminal lawyers in Pattaya say that the most likely penalty for the Indian gamblers will be a stiff fine, deportation and blacklisting. The Thai organizers could face other charges. But the saga pinpoints the reality that Pattaya 30 years ago may have been a “wild west” town with an anything-goes reputation. It isn’t now.
