The Crime Suppression Division (CSD) is preparing to crack down on gambling, especially online sites aimed at youths, before the Fifa World Cup next month.
CSD chief Maitri Chimcherd had signed an order on May 1 to establish a centre to deal with the rise of football gambling that is expected to peak during the tournament from June 12 to July 13.
The centre was launched in response to an order issued by deputy national police chief Chalermkiat Srivorakhan.
Police officials will focus on arresting hosts and casinos offering football bets.
It will pay attention to online football betting websites. It is estimated there are more than 200,000 websites for football gambling, with many servers located overseas.
Experts on computer crime and online technology from the Technology Crime Suppression Division at the Royal Thai Police will be allocated to tackle online gambling operators.
Pol Lt Gen Thitiraj said the authority needed to open the centre after it learned that rates of crime -- thefts and purse snatching in particular -- increased after major football events.
Many wrongdoers admitted they needed to find money for repaying football gambling debts. Pol Gen Chalermkiat said police had information on football betting websites both in the country and overseas.
As for Facebook pages enticing netizens to guess results of football matches, officers needed to consider whether those messages breached the Gambling and Computer Acts.
Legal action would be taken against administrators of those social media pages found to promote football betting.
Gambling is popular among Thais and a study released by the Ministry of Public Health in March showed over 50% of Thais were gamblers.
More than 3 million are youths. The study showed 207,000 of 3.1 million young gamblers are addicted to gambling and football betting is the most favourite among them.
The study in 2016 found there were 213,000 websites for football gambling, with servers located overseas, many of which are known to Thais.
In the latest Uefa Euro Cup in 2016, gambling debts among youths were around 2,000 baht per person.
The Ministry of Public Health also found that youth gamblers are six times more likely to use drugs, and five times more likely to have drinking problems, three-to-10 times more likely to smoke cigarettes, and four times more likely to commit suicide than those who don't gamble.
