Gambling charges ‘likely’ dropped against arrested bridge players in Thailand

The group of foreigners arrested in an island in Thailand for playing bridge will “likely” walk away as free men and women, local media reported.

According to Pattaya Mail, authorities will likely drop the gambling charges filed against the 32 foreigners, all over the age of 60, arrested last week. However, Jomtien & Pattaya Bridge Club President Jeremy Watson could face penalties for organizing the card sessions, which have been going on since 1994.

Quoting Thai police chief Pol. Col. Sukthat Pumphanmuang, the report said Watson’s group “is not legally registered as a club and was using cards unapproved by the Excise Department.”

Last week, Thai law enforcement officers and members of the military raided a second-floor room above a restaurant in Pattaya and found a group of men and women, mostly Britons who live on the island, playing bridge. No money was seen changing hands, but authorities said the players violated a local law from 1935 that forbids anyone from possessing “more than 120 playing cards at a time,” and that “the cards did not have an official government seal on the boxes.”