New raid In Pattaya

[Chuai-Duai]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/viral/a/30736 ... e-players/ (https://au.news.yahoo.com/viral/a/30736532/thai-police-raid-nets-32-foreign-bridge-players/)

[Manforallseasons]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/viral/a/30736532/thai-police-raid-nets-32-foreign-bridge-players/


Maybe they were playing strip bridge?

[Smiles]

MOO ... I hope very much that this board does not become simply a crowd of folks throwing up a single link to something-or-other and leaving it at that ... presumably hoping to get some response from 'everyone else' rather than a specific point of view [one way or the other] from the original poster regarding the crux of the matter brought up by the linked WWW address itself.
LonelyWombat has been pulling this kind of 'please discuss' stunt for years now, and I sincerely hope it does not goes much further than him.
Just for my sense of this unfortunate habit ... I tend to never bother clicking on a post which is made up of a single, barren, no-context URL link.

[Nirish guy]

I'm worn between saying "typical Bloody Thailand - ridiculous" etc and to all those expats who complain about tourists coming and ignoring "the law/s" when in Thailand - well ya can't have it both ways I guess, you either support the law in full and in whole or like me pick and chose the ones you like / dislike / think are reasonable and ignore the rest, but of course if choosing the second option then a) you have to accept the consequences when the law upholders catch you and not complain about it either too much.

No point getting out the "I don't get it" card, it's the LAW "apparently" - or say bollocks to the lot of it and accept Thailand is a bit of a fuck up when it comes to law and order and just do your own thing and muddle through as best you can.

[cdnmatt]

^^ Because more than likely, this is just the General generating a scape goat out of nothing. You'd think the police would have better things to do than raid a bridge game filled with senior citizens. This is the type of story I'd expect out of the US, not Thailand. Either that, or there's more to the story than what was reported in that article.

[christianpfc]

Agree with Smiles, and extend to youtube.

(Technically covered as youtube is a www address, but I find the distinction of written matter and video useful, and there was a recent surge of posts consisting of nothing more than a link to youtube and a headline that can only be understood after having a look at youtube to see what the subject is.)

[Chuai-Duai]

The BBC picked up the story and reported that one of the members of the club is to be prosecuted under the тАЬPlaying Cards Act of 1935 which states that an individual is not allowed to possess more than 120 playing cards at any one timeтАЭ.

According to the original story if gambling is actually illegal it seems bizarre that you can watch Cock Fighting on Thai television with frenzied betting very obviously going on. A Thai friend even won money betting on a Cock Fight and certainly made no secret of it.

[jimnbkk]

Thai Visa reported that there was no money changing hands, so the officers searched the law books and finally found an offence that was being commited, so the organizer was arrested, with the others released on 5,000 Baht bail. The law being violated seemed to be that he had more than 120 cards in his possession. The law was dated 1935. They were all held at the police station for 12 hours before being released. Thursday they were scheduled to see the judge.

Anybody have an update?

[Smiles]

" ... if gambling is actually illegal it seems bizarre that you can watch Cock Fighting on Thai television with frenzied betting ..."
And Bull Dualing as well. Out in the open with much baht changing hands.

[Nirish guy]

Although whilst a crazy story in itself I did think that one of the most interesting snippets contained therein was it seems just how much much all those arrested must have had little regard for one of their very own group !

It states that 24 farang from several Countries were arrested but all released a short time after on payment of 5000 baht bail, however ONE poor guy was left to rot in jail as he could not apparently raise his bail money, so out of 24 farang just how much must they all have really hated THAT one guy when not ONE of them stepped in to offer to lend him a measly 5000 baht to secure his release or come back and pay that for him !

Ha maybe he's the bugger who wins every game every week and they were all throughly sick of it and this was all their cunning plan to have him detained to give the rest of them a chance to win for a change ! Aww the poor guy ( quite literally it seems too !)

[Dalewood]

I really enjoy bridge. I hope the club is back on its feet when I am there next.

[Manforallseasons]

Why no urine tests? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyONSc0pARU

[Nirish guy]

"Why no urine tests?"

It seems to me that the entire raid was just one massive example of the Thai police and Army taking the piss surely !

[bkkguy]

ONE poor guy was left to rot in jail as he could not apparently raise his bail money, so out of 24 farang just how much must they all have really hated THAT one guy when not ONE of them stepped in to offer to lend him a measly 5000 baht to secure his release or come back and pay that for him !

in another published version of the event one guy on a matter of principle refused to sign a "confession" and pay the 5,000 Baht bail for a gambling charge that he was not guilty of (some others signed based on legal advice that the confession could be retracted later), his bail was however paid by the game organizer

so jump to whatever unsupportable conclusion you want to based on whichever version(s) of events you happen to have read - everybody else has, but the facts have been few and far between in the pathetic media reporting with errors and inconsistencies in every article and the feeding frenzy in the forums and letters to the editor has been just as bad

and of course we all remember the old joke about playing bridge being like having sex - you don't need a partner if you have a good hand!

bkkguy

[Tobi]

...so jump to whatever unsupportable conclusion you want...

Facts From Pattaya.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... om-pattaya (http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/857016/facts-from-pattaya)

[thaiguest]

There's a group of BK Post readers that are regular writers of "letters to the editor". They frequently clash over issues and are premanently outraged by something or other.
Above all they carry the great burden of "Gravitas".
Why the hell do they bother?
No Thai with authority gaves a damn what farang readers of an english language newspaper have to say.
Now if it were the Thai language Issarn Times that would be a different story.
Re the Raid story- the Pattaya Bridge Club is surely the only B C in the entire universe to be the subject/object of a military operation.
This is something they can tell their grandchildren but they need to hurry up.

[fedssocr]

The BBC picked up the story and reported that one of the members of the club is to be prosecuted under the тАЬPlaying Cards Act of 1935 which states that an individual is not allowed to possess more than 120 playing cards at any one timeтАЭ.

According to the original story if gambling is actually illegal it seems bizarre that you can watch Cock Fighting on Thai television with frenzied betting very obviously going on. A Thai friend even won money betting on a Cock Fight and certainly made no secret of it.

or Muay Thai. Plenty of betting happening there as well