Police arrested 9,420 people on World Cup gambling charges, including about 8,800 punters, and seized about 42 million baht in bets during the first 20 days of the tourney.
Deputy police spokesman Krisana Patanacharoen said on Wednesday that from June 14 to July 3 police detained 392 people for hosting gambling events, 8,879 gamblers and 149 bookmakers' agents.
The roundup included 79 online gambling hosts and 169 online gamblers.
Police also seized about 6 million baht involved in the gambling - 3.83 million baht in cash and 2.54 million baht in bank passbooks. Seized written betting orders totalled 36.03 million baht.
As the operation against World Cup football gambling continues, police were checking on internet shops, entertainment venues and game shops, Pol Col Krisana said. They were also patrolling banks, ATMs, convenience stores and gold shops to deter people who might turn to crime to recoup gambling losses, he said.
Deputy national police chief Chalermkiat Srivorakhan said the number of arrests was already about 5,000 more than during the previous World Cup four years ago, because gamblers had many more channels available to them.
